EDQG Quilt Festival Blog

U of A

Clothing Repair Café

Teaching a Person to Mend for Life: The Power of a Clothing Repair Café

Clothing repair cafés are popping up around the globe, part of the broader “repair café” and “right to repair” movements aimed at sustainability and self-sufficiency. With over 3,000 general repair cafés in Europe alone, it’s a growing response to a throwaway culture. Clothing, thankfully, remains one area where repair is still accessible — and empowering.

While clothing can certainly be included in general repair cafés, there’s real value in hosting dedicated ones. We wear clothes daily, and working with fabric involves unique skills best taught in a textile focused environment.

UofA has a monthly Clothing Repair Café

Since fall 2022, I’ve volunteered at the University of Alberta’s monthly Clothing Repair Café. It runs one Saturday afternoon a month, with 30–40 participants and a team of volunteers offering guidance and tools. Attendees bring everything from torn jeans to broken zippers, and together we patch, hem, darn, alter, and discuss.

Sometimes there’s a short demo — sashiko is a crowd favourite — but the real magic happens in the one-on-one conversations: learning how to thread a needle, run a sewing machine, fix a strap or seam, and choose better-made clothes in the future.

The Café isn’t just about saving garments --

The café isn’t just about saving garments — it’s about confidence and community. Participants, especially young women, often gain a better sense of their bodies and the realities of mass-produced clothing. We talk openly about fast fashion, fabric types, and the joy of visible mending. My motto? “The only good mend is a done mend.”