• Environment,  Repair

    How to repair a rip by a pocket – shirt/pyjamas

    You’ll recognise these from the last post. They are getting really old and slightly thin. The fabric was never that hefty to start with which had the benefit of being lovely in the summer. I leaned over slightly and heard that nasty sound which can strike fear when you’re out for the evening. Your clothes being ripped is rarely good news, although it could be if your love object then lends you their jacket and it turns out you’re in a romcom. This did ACTUALLY happen to me as a student at a posh dinner – sat down heavily in a skin tight dress and the seam by the zip…

  • Environment,  Repair

    Rescuing PJs – when pyjamas won’t leave the party

    These PJs were a TK Max find, bought when it was really closer to a clean jumble sale than a clothes shop. The originals are fine cotton, cool in summer, slightly more girly than my normal clothes but nicely made with piping and stuff. I discovered that I normally sleep on my back AND don’t stay still, all over the back waistband the fabric was literally wearing away. I’d just started volunteering at the Repair Cafe, it had only just begun in our town and some months we had more volunteers than visitors so I’d learnt to take some of my own sewing. This seemed like a perfect project to…

  • Environment,  Repair

    Repair Cafe – the new, old idea

    Maybe you’ve been repairing stuff for years without really thinking about it. Or maybe you just chucked stuff out the moment it was no longer perfect, shiny and new. We all know what we “should” be doing, we didn’t need Greta or David Attenborough to tell us that binning as much as we do is a seriously bad idea. But maybe their voices have made us take a bit more notice and a bit more action. Environmental campaigners have long told people to try and keep stuff going for as long as possible, repairing, renovating, upcycling, re-purposing but many of those skills had fallen out of favour due to uber-cheap…