Thanks to this past Saturday’s Clothing Repairathon, I can now say that we run events (plural) without that being an exaggeration. We had a lot of fun, fixed a lot of clothes, and learned a lot of things that we’ll use to tweak how we run our next event.

This time our volunteers were Michael (me), Barbara, Bianca, and Monica, as well as a few attendees who decided to help out. The great team at the Withrow Park Farmers’ Market not only provided us with a tent and chairs, but also drew us an excellent chalk sandwich board.

We sort of lost count, but I think we repaired around thirty articles of clothing. That’s a lot, and a full 50% more than during our first event. A number of people brought whole bags of clothes, so in future we’ll limit to something like two or three articles per person, to make sure we have a chance to get to everyone.

The most interesting thing this time was zippers. Our first event had no zipper issues, but this time we had around a half-dozen, many of which we were able to fix. If this keeps up, we’ll have to gain some zipper expertise.

Many people wanted to thank us, so this time we let our “customers” know that they could get us something to eat from the market. Everyone was so generous, we ended up with coffee, cheeses, samosas, and other great things. Our volunteers were a little over-dedicated; I had to force a few people to take a food break, and hand-feed another who wouldn’t stop sewing :-).

Left to right: Monica, a “customer”, Charlotte (materials donor), Bianca, and Michael

Monica, hard at work on some jeans

Sandwich board art by Withrow Park Farmers’ Market

a selection of our pinks, purples, and blue threads

Barbara, assessing the placement of an elbow patch

satisfied customer, with the skirt’s hem repaired

customer-turned-volunteer, and a benefactor of excellent cheeses

Our cutest customer doesn’t like bibs, so her mom had us sew waterproof bib fabric onto her dress

Barbara sewing a purse, despite my trying to pack us up

Everyone else had packed up, but our dedicated volunteers couldn’t stop

Thanks everyone for coming out, thanks to those who bought us some food, thanks to the Withrow Park Farmers’ Market, and thanks especially to our fantastic volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without you.

We’ll let you know when and where our next event will be as soon as we get that figured out.