MH – Ealing Repair Cafe

Books on repairing and alterations

I bring a selection of sewing and mending books along to our Ealing Repair Cafe sessions. It really helps for people to see the potential visible mending and alterations. So I thought it would be useful to share the books here. When writing these review I started reading through the books again and came acrossContinue reading “Books on repairing and alterations”

Up-cycling for Cop26

It’s been a busy few weeks at Ealing Repair Cafe. We have been busy up-cycling and creating for COP26: UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021. an upcycled hi-vis vest into a bike flag and some sashes and armbands for volunteers with ActforEaling. So not had much time for mending in the last few weeks! SoContinue reading “Up-cycling for Cop26”

Trainers & Shoe Darns

For Great Big Green Week, Ealing Repair Cafe was invited to the St Stephens Big Green Fair. It was lovely to meet lots of keen people want to do their bit for the environment. I took along with me, examples of my mends, our darning and patching leaflets and lots of equipment to help peopleContinue reading “Trainers & Shoe Darns”

Mending pile: All about knees

My son is constantly wearing holes in his trousers. These are school PE trousers so kept the visible mend understated so he can still wear them for school. I used the visible mending technique called Boro stitch. Firstly find a patch suitable for the area. For this one, I used an old t-shirt as itContinue reading “Mending pile: All about knees”

Sustainable wins: Fabric Wrapping

What do you do at birthdays, Christmas and celebrations things to make it sustainable? We used to end up with a huge pile of wrapping paper every birthday and Christmas but now we have very little as we have swapped to reusable wraps and bags. Every family birthday these wraps come out. Its reduced dramaticallyContinue reading “Sustainable wins: Fabric Wrapping”

Laundry washing products: Green Washing or Greenwashing?

I have been thinking I should change from my supermarket non bio which although comes in a cardboard box may not have the best ingredients. I discovered this brilliant analysis on laundry powders as weighs up ingredients from various brands out there. When referring to Ethical Consumer magazine, we noticed that some of the ‘NewContinue reading “Laundry washing products: Green Washing or Greenwashing?”