Repairing textile waste, one stitch at a time

The Daily Advertiser

Wagga clothing repairers demonstrate the possibilities of repair, and how to make an old garment look fresh again. Footage by Madeline Begleys

Transcript

00:00 We get a lot of people coming from Mending, which is nice to see in the world of fast

00:09 fashion.

00:10 It's nice to see people, you know, spending their money to get their clothes to last them

00:14 a few more years and not end up in all the fabric waste of the world.

00:23 My name's Agin De Bruin and I work here at the stitchery.

00:26 I work for Kim and I've worked for Kim for probably close to 20 years I think now and

00:31 I just love it.

00:32 I really enjoy it.

00:33 We love it so much we'll even sew on the weekends.

00:36 We do get a lot of these things that come in, people, their favourite shirts, their

00:39 favourite pants, their favourite anything and we'll fix it for them so there's still

00:42 a lot more life left in it.

00:44 We just iron a patch on behind it, we find the best colour we can find to match the shirt

00:49 and we stitch over it.

00:50 What about check?

00:51 We'll have to get contrast.

00:52 A couple of patches.

00:53 We sort of do everything here from hemming to replacing zips to mending to bringing clothes

01:09 in, letting clothes out, anything.

01:12 Darning holes when the moths get to all the favourite jumpers.

01:16 Yep, we do all that.

01:21 So then we'll stitch around the patch and then we'll mend in the pink.

01:26 So there you go, there's your mended shirt.

01:32 That's the front, that's the back.

01:37 I mean you're going to get a few more years life out of it, yeah definitely, before it

01:43 ends up in the rubbish bin or the rag bag.

01:47 The attitude towards clothing has changed a lot.

01:51 The fast fashion is very untidy and not been trimmed properly and it makes it much harder

01:59 to alter and to get a professional finish on it.

02:03 A lot of the clothing is the fabrics aren't of the best quality and the making isn't always

02:11 of the best quality either so when you get it onto the inside it can be very untidy,

02:17 lots of threads so it's not as easy to alter.

02:22 My name's Rosalie Cameron and I have been in the dressmaking industry probably all my

02:28 life.

02:29 Now I'm working full time from home under cloth on High Street.

02:33 These days there would be the tendency just to throw it out if the collar was worn rather

02:37 than taking the time to turn it and making it look new again.

02:45 I mainly do alterations for formal and bridal wear but the range is much more diverse.

02:51 I get a lot of things coming through the door.

02:54 I'm just anyone that needs help with a garment taking in and helping people to feel and look

03:01 good in their garments.

03:09 I get a lot of satisfaction out of it because it's really great to see someone walk out

03:14 the door really happy that they've had their dress altered and it now fits them properly.

03:18 They're utilising their clothing more rather than it just sitting in the cupboard thinking

03:22 oh I really should get something done with that.

03:25 And they're quite excited to be able to wear something that they've had for some time and

03:29 needed a little bit of a revamp.

03:32 Repairs will get a lot more mileage out of your garment.

03:36 If you take the time to have it repaired and done properly you will get a lot more mileage

03:41 out of your clothing.

03:43 I remember my mother taking the collar off.

03:45 She would have done that because my father probably only had one or two shirts.

03:50 So to preserve the life of them that's what they did.

03:53 Like I've done with this one I've taken the collar part off the stand, reinforced the

04:00 area that was frayed and turned it around so that from the right side it looks almost

04:08 new again.

04:09 I can tell you that the cost of living crisis has definitely hit everybody and so people

04:21 will look at something like a school bag.

04:24 They've got three months left in the year and the buckles of the zipper or something

04:29 like that's gone.

04:30 They'll bring it to me and in a couple of days it's back up and running and they haven't

04:35 had to go out and buy that.

04:37 My name's Kevin Taylor so they go out and start Riverina Shoe Repairs.

04:42 That was originally in there and yeah with the extra force it's actually broken where

04:48 the original stitching was.

04:52 So I basically do everything.

04:54 Watch repairs, all the different shoe repairs.

04:57 You get everything from the high end, the people that have spent a lot of money on like

05:00 an R.M. Williams.

05:01 So they like to come in and get that type of stuff either repaired or protected where

05:07 they can get the topey sole over it and know that they can get a lot more time out of it.

05:11 But some people can have something that they've bought from Kmart and they've worn for a couple

05:15 of years and they've worn the back of it out.

05:19 And of course they can just go and buy another pair but they can come to me and basically

05:23 half the price get it repaired.

05:26 But yeah when it comes to the higher end shoes it's absolutely definitely worth it.

05:30 School shoes with velcros and things like that.

05:33 All that stuff wears out and it can be fixed in a day.

05:38 And then it's actually, what I put on there as far as the materials usually outlasts

05:42 the original sole, the original velcro, things like that.

05:48 It's helped a lot of people.

05:51 People also, they'll come in with a pair of boots and the sole's completely deteriorated,

05:56 there's nothing I can do.

05:58 So they'll donate them to me because I'll be able to use the leather and certain things

06:04 off the boot so it just doesn't get thrown away.

06:07 And that's the finished product.

06:09 So what we did is the plan B which was to actually steal a bit from the existing strap.

06:14 We used that to make a new piece.

06:19 To strengthen it while I had it open I actually added a piece of leather which we call pig

06:24 split leather which is very thin but very strong.

06:28 Just glued that onto the back, onto the inside before closing it up onto there and then stitching

06:34 everything back down.

06:35 I hear both, that people don't want to put it into the landfill.

06:41 They'll say, "Well this bag only cost me $40 10 years ago but I'm willing to spend $50

06:48 to get it up and running again instead of it being thrown out."

06:55 And there's definitely the cost of living biting people.

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