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Got a rip in your favorite jeans? A hole in your sweater? There are local classes that can teach you how to mend your clothes yourself, often a less expensive and more environmentally friendly alternative to tossing out an otherwise perfectly good piece of clothing. GBH’s Hannah Loss has a primer on where to find local mending classes. Throughout the week, we’ll be bringing you stories at the intersection of climate change and money from around New England through the New England News Collaborative’s Earth Week series.
But first, the news…
Four Things to Know
1. Graduate student workers at Harvard University walked off their jobs yesterday, on the first day of a union strike, indefinitely stopping teaching, grading and laboratory research. Wages and changes to working conditions are the main holdups, student leaders say. Monday’s bargaining session — the last scheduled before the Harvard Graduate Student Union’s midnight deadline — avoided talks of wages and other economic issues before the union formally confirmed the walkout.
2. New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said Tuesday that he’s had “difficult conversations with people I care about,” including his family, his coaching staff and players, following the publication of photos of the coach and longtime NFL reporter Dianna Russini at an Arizona resort. “In order to be successful on and off the field, you have to make good decisions. That includes me. That starts with me,” Vrabel said. The photos, published by the New York Post, show Vrabel and Russini at a Sedona resort and were taken before the annual NFL meetings, which began March 29 in Phoenix.
3. From our colleagues at CT Public: With the conflict in Iran dragging on, gas prices are still painfully high. Farmers need fuel and fertilizer to get their crops in the ground. Finding alternatives is a way farmers can both help the climate and save money. Across New England, farmers are finding that switching to renewable energy isn’t just a nice thing to have — it is becoming a necessary part of their economic survival.
4. Fitchburg Arts Community — which sits across from the Fitchburg Art Museum — is looking to help revitalize the city’s downtown and welcome creatives to the area. It’s an income-limited affordable housing project, but it gives preference to local artists. About 20 artists live in the community of 68 affordable housing units, part of a $46 million project that opened last year. The homes were created out of three formerly abandoned buildings: a local middle school that burned down in 2016, a high school annex and a horse stable.
New Englanders patch holes to make sustainable wardrobes
Now, where to start if you’re looking for local mending classes?
First: check your local library, which might run sewing and mending classes. Here are listings in Boston, Worcester (which provides sewing machines and instruction on how to use them), Cambridge and Watertown. These classes are often free, though many require you to register in advance on the library’s website.
There are also local businesses that run sewing classes. Look for a local craft or fabric store, or check out places like Loveday Boutique in Concord.
You might run into Catherine Karp, who teaches a technique called visible mending. Rather than concealing the repairs, the method repairs holes and rips with colorful embroidery, patches or repeating patterns.
“Part of this is very improvisational and sometimes I compare it to jazz,” Karp told Loss. “You can just make it up and it will sound beautiful.”
Or: you can find a local tailor or mender to fix your clothing for you. This might be the easier way to go if you’re not an experienced sewer and are dealing with a trickier fabric. Galust Khaytyan, of Jimmy’s Shoe Repair, recently consulted with a woman named Elizabeth about a rip in her leather leggings during a clothing swap at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge. He said he could patch the rip, but warned that it might leave a slight scar in the leather.
“It will add character,” Elizabeth said. “There’s so much waste out there, and it’s good to reuse what we have or give it new life.”
You can hear more clothing repair wisdom in Hannah Loss’ story here.
Dig deeper:
-Local thrift, pawn shops say rising costs are driving more business
-Feeling thrifty: How the secondhand market is changing the fashion game
-A walk down the block: Is Boston fashionable? These people say yes
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