Mending Lab: pre-game for the Eco-Fair

Meet the Menders!

Marycarla Quintalzzi and Laura Coulter-Low

Green Liberty Village brought facilitators Marycarla Quintalzzi and Laura Coulter-Low to get us in the repair and reuse spirit before our signature eco-fair on June 6. Marycarla and Laura have run Mending Labs out of the Center for Social Innovation and at other locations. They started the session with a brief audio/visual presentation for the group followed by hands on activity. They also brought along a number of resources from stitching books to a sewing machine.

Liberty Village residents of all ages learned to sew basic stitches, some for the first time with many moving on to advanced ladder stitching techniques. About half the group brought their own clothing item to mend and received tailored instruction from our facilitators, including some work on their sewing machine. Our group learned new skills and left feeling more empowered to mend additional items at home on their own.

We’ve had fantastic feedback and hope to bring in more types of repair sessions in the future.