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Anyone who has clothes that need mending or altering should head to the Less Waste recycling centre near Snells Beach this Saturday, September 21, where a Textile Repair Café is being held.
A team of volunteer sewers will be in the Mahurangi Wastebusters learning hub at the back of the Lawrie Road site, ready to take on fabric fixes to keep clothes, bedding and other material items out of landfill.
The event is a collaboration between the local Fabric Rescue group and Mahurangi Wastebusters as part of the first national Aotearoa New Zealand festival, which runs until September 22.
Fabric Rescue member Angie Gibbons says the repair café is a local bid to make a dent in the 180,000 tonnes of textile waste that are thrown away in New Zealand every year.
“We can mend rips, tidy up school uniforms, shorten trousers, help your dress or shirt fit a little better, offer ideas and inspiration for updating an item or hiding a stain, replace elastic, fix stitching, add patches, and reinforce areas of high wear,” she says.
The team will also show visitors how they can repair items themselves to give them a new lease of life.
Anyone bringing an item to be repaired is encouraged to bring in the right buttons, colour-matched thread, elastic and so on, though there will be a selection of such items on hand to use as well.
The team is also looking for denim donations for future upcycling projects, so feel free to take along any old jeans or jackets that have rips, broken zips, stains or are just out of fashion.
The textile repair café will be open from 10am to 1pm. Entry is free, repairs by koha.
Info: Fabric Rescue on Facebook or email fabricrescuemk@gmail.com
