Ealing Repair Café, a group of volunteers based in Ealing have been awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2025. This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE. Ealing Repair Café’s primary focus is to encourage and facilitate clothes and textiles mendingContinue reading “Ealing Repair Cafe receives The King’s Award for Voluntary Service”
Author Archives: Mary H
Ealing Sewing machine lessons
Looking for a sewing machine class in Ealing? We are lucky to have a selection of great sewing classes available in Ealing. There are online courses too if this would be suitable for you. Please get in touch if you have other recommendations for other lessons, please contact us or comment below. Sewing Machine LessonsContinue reading “Ealing Sewing machine lessons”
Join Ealing’s Fabric Swap and Sale Event October 2025
De-stash your fabric drawer, find new fabric and pattern treasures, meet other sewing bees and enjoy a cuppa & cake whilst supporting West London Days for Girls charity. Come along on Sunday 19 October from 3 pm to 5.30 pm at Northfields Community Centre in Ealing for some environmentally-friendly fabric shopping and swapping. Ealing RepairContinue reading “Join Ealing’s Fabric Swap and Sale Event October 2025”
How to Extend the Life of School Uniforms
Children’s school uniform and sports kits are a necessary (but sometimes costly) family expense. So we have put together some tips on how to keep your children wearing and using their school uniform for longer. “The Wrong Blazer 2020” report shows that parents spend an average of £337 per year on uniforms for secondary school children andContinue reading “How to Extend the Life of School Uniforms”
DIY Simple Purse: Easy Sewing Project
A simple purse that is simple to make. You can experiment with decorating them and use different styles stitching to practice your sewing skills. This purse is a great way to use up scraps of heavy fabrics like upholstery or denim from jeans. It has so many uses, for example a coin or credit cardContinue reading “DIY Simple Purse: Easy Sewing Project”
World Kindness Day Upcycling workshop
Join Ealing Repair cafe for World Kindness day on Wednesday 13 November to help make drawstring bags from old t-shirts and denim upcycled draft excluders from jeans. No sewing experience required. We will donate items to Age UK Ealing, Ealing Soup Kitchen and South Ealing Food cupboard. This free event is funded by Ealing Council.Continue reading “World Kindness Day Upcycling workshop”
Upcycle t-shirt in draw string bag
Make this handy drawstring bag easily from an old t-shirt in just a few minutes. There’s minimal stitching and from one t-shirt you can get up to 4 bags.
Local Ealing Fabric and Sewing supplies
When buying items for repairing and sewing it’s good to support your local high street. We are lucky to have some businesses locally to Ealing and West London that offer a great selection. Did you know that when you support a local shop it keeps more money in the local economy? When you spend a MagicContinue reading “Local Ealing Fabric and Sewing supplies “
Help develop a toolkit for clothes repair this January 2024
Looking for people who are interested in repairing clothes as part of being a sustainable consumer. Ealing Repair cafe in partnership with the RCA (Royal College of Art) to take part of clothes repair research project on Wednesday 24 January to evaluate the effectiveness of a repair toolkit and you are invited too, find outContinue reading “Help develop a toolkit for clothes repair this January 2024”
Make a draught excluder from old jeans
As we move into winter, and with increasing energy costs, you might be thinking about how to make your home more cosy and save some money on heating. One way you might do this is to use draught excluders at the bottom of draughty doors (or windows). Your can of course buy one. Or youContinue reading “Make a draught excluder from old jeans”
How to sew on name labels to school uniform
Our guide on to help you get those sew on name labels and badges attached to school uniform for the start of term.
Sustainable Clothing Material Guide
Good on you have done the detective work for us and written the ultimate clothing material guide to the vast selection of fabrics found in clothes that you can find on shop shelves, in your wardrobe and fabric shops.
Fabric Swap and Sale
Come along and get some lovely fabric at Days for Girls sale and swap on Sunday 23 April 3pm until 5.30pm, at Northfields Community Centre, Ealing. Bring cash and as much or as little fabric you want to swap, as there is always plenty of fabric to chose from.
Mends for Jeans
Jeans are the more hard-wearing clothes in our wardrobe and designed to last. However as we do wear them a lot, jeans still need patching usually around the crotch or knees. Here’s a few examples of how we make some almost invisible and visible mends. Rear end mend! These jeans ripped on the rear alongContinue reading “Mends for Jeans”
Setting up a Clothes Repair Group
Our guide to set up your own clothes repair cafe, giving you suggestions on what you need and how to go about setting up sessions.
Ealing Repair Cafe 