A skirt hem that needed fixing, some shirt cuffs coming apart, a pillow that busted a seam, the perennial holey sock, and a quilt with a patch or two wearing away. Those are some of the items that got some needed TLC at the last instalment of Sackville\u2019s Mending Cafe, a monthly open-invitation get-together where folks can bring their mending and spend some time on it together.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday from 7pm to 9pm at the Sackville Visitor Information Centre, people will gather to do it again. Organizers will have a sewing machine, an iron, and some iced tea on hand, and the rest is up to whoever shows up, whatever the skill level.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople bring anything that needs mending,\u201d says co-organizer Patricia Kelly Spurles. \u201cThey can mend it themselves, or they can get some instruction or advice or help from other people who are there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be good at mending,\u201d says Kelly Spurles. \u201cIn fact, you don\u2019t even need to have mending, you can just come and hang out while other people mend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea behind the cafe is two-fold. On the one hand, taking care of lost buttons and small tears can be a kind of self-care, doubly so when its done in a social setting. On the other, it\u2019s care for the planet, in terms of keeping clothes from prematurely hitting the landfill, and reducing demand for new items. Repairing something that\u2019s been bothering you, to make it fit better or last longer, has immediate practical benefits, and can also scratch the same itch that is sometimes relieved with shopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people\u2019s consumption is related to wanting to fill a little bit of a void, or wanting to reward yourself for something, or wanting to improve your life in some difficult to pin down way,\u201d says Kelly Spurles. \u201cI think that mending clothing in a social setting allows us to do those special things\u2014engage with our creativity and address some of our material needs\u2014but without requiring additional consumption, without using more of the earth\u2019s precious resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly Spurles says Sackville\u2019s Mending Cafes are open to all, and are designed to provide a friendly, low-commitment, no-cost social space. \u201cThis is a free event that is open to absolutely everybody,\u201d says Spurles. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to commit to come every time. You don\u2019t have to be a member of a group or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next Mending Cafe is Tuesday, August 22, 2023, 7pm to 9pm at the Sackville Visitor Information Centre on Mallard Drive.<\/p>\n
A skirt hem that needed fixing, some shirt cuffs coming apart, a pillow that busted a seam, the perennial holey sock, and a quilt with a patch or two wearing away. Those are some of the items that got some needed TLC at the last instalment of Sackville\u2019s Mending Cafe, a monthly open-invitation get-together where…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":174338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,219,222],"tags":[11939,15596,29499,7715,29506,4574],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174342,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174334\/revisions\/174342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174334"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=174334"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=174334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}