Toss it? No Way!
We can help! Come along and let us help you repair those pesky holes. The latest thing is to make them visible! Embroidery, darning, sewing we can show you how. On again this Sunday 7th July and also the 14th. 2 – 4pm, 180 Longueville Road, Lane Cove
Always the first and second Sundays of the month and from 2pm to 4pm. In 2019 Repair Cafe Sydney North is open:
March 3 and 10
April 7 and 14
( Daylight saving ends 7 April Please sleep in )
May 5 and 12
June 2 and 9
July 7 and 14
August 4 and 11
September 1 and 8
Oct 6 and 13
Nov 3 and 10
Dec 1 and 8
For more information, ring Wendy on 94204884 or 0410280912
!
The socks were, in the words of the owner, old enough to vote. But they were well-made, hand-kitted, warm for cool toes, and perfectly wearable.Except for a thin patch under the heel. With the help of a wooden darning egg, some heritage know-how, and skilful hands, they can be worn again. Mum would be proud.
At the Repair Café, well-loved items can be darned, re-stitched, re-glued and tweaked back to useful life. Watch and learn, try your hand at repairing, and enjoy a cuppa/home made snacks in good company. We help fix and pass on repair skills whenever possible be it a home gadget, jewellery, piece of clothing , shoes or sharpening of knives and tools including common landfilled items such as broken umbrellas, backpacks and cooler bags. If unsure, please contact us
This coffee plunger story from our volunteer, Glenda speaks volume about the Repair Café Sydney North:
“A lovely couple came in with their favourite coffee plunger to see if the handle could be fixed. It was very difficult to use in its present condition as the knob had broken off, leaving a sharp metal stem to push down.
I carry lots of spare parts including preloved donations from our visitors for the jewellery table as no 2 jobs are the same. Searching through my collection, I found a glass bead with a large hole with a metal lining, possibly from a “Pandora” type of bracelet It was a perfect fit!!! With a drop of ‘Liquid Nails’ glue, the “new” knob will never ever be parted again from the handle!
The couple were absolutely delighted with their “new” flashy red crystal knob atop their silver coffee plunger! Big smiles all around!
It really is what the Repair Café is all about. We, the volunteers help repair cherished items be it household gadgets, jewellery pieces, ceramics, sewing of all descriptions, shoes or sharpening of tools that would otherwise just end up in land fill!!! “.
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Wendy Dwyer’s visit to Toronto Repair Cafe, Canada.
It was a great visit and I learned much on the running of another successful cafe. Here are some pics from my visit. As the saying goes ” a picture is worth a thousand words” It was wonderful meeting the 3 organisers Paul, Fern and Wai and volunteers. I happened to be on the day they celebrated the cafe’s 4th birthday
Wow, what a great open day we had with Permapatch and Sydney Crop Swap! Costa Georgiadis joined us and gave us a bit of a plug on his official facebook page and we had heaps of repairs! It was a great buzz and the home made pizza and wine were an added bonus! It was a bit quieter on Mothers Day but we’re looking forward to June and keeping more stuff out of landfill. Check out our facebook page for the latest happenings.
Sustainability,
Reduce waste through repair,
Reduce landfill,
Sharing repair skills
Community building
Saving money
Saving time
Visitors to our April Repair Café days made 115 successful fixes! With the help of our skilled volunteers, the visitors repaired items ranging from clothing to jewellery to small battery operated gadgets to shoes and tools sharpening.
We will be open as usual in May, on the first and second Sundays.
Make a note of the first Sunday, 7th May. This is a special occasion. We will celebrate a joint open event day with Permapatch Community Garden. We also welcome the participation of Crop Swap Sydney.
This is a day not to be missed!
Do come early and visit the Permapatch Community Garden located right behind the Café. Wander through the garden, enjoy morning tea, wood fire pizza, wine (by donation) and participate in the Crop Swap.
Items you can bring along for swapping can include vegies, herbs or home made sauces, jams or baked goods before heading to visit us at the Repair Cafe.
The Cafe will be open for an extra hour, from 1 til 4pm on this day only.
Below are the events on May 7: –
1030 Permapatch Community Garden open to the public; garden tours and talks.
1100 free morning tea
11:15 demonstration of making raw jelly from a green grass jelly plant. Seedlings of this amazing plant will be given free during Crop Swap
11:30 Introducing Crop Swap Sydney, and swap begins
12:30 wood fired pizza and wine ( by donation)
1pm Repair Café opens
1 to 4pm garden tours continue
Place: Chatswood South Uniting Church Hall, corner Pacific Hwy and Mowbray Road. Parking at back of Church Hall.
For more information contact Wendy 0410280912 or 94204884. Email: repaircafesydneynorth@gmail.com
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“So that’s how it’s done – I can do that myself!”
Photo shows a young visitor watching his dad add a stitch or two to the strap of mom’s ‘special occasion’ shoes. One of the most satisfying moments at the Repair Café is when the visitor says “so that’s how it’s done -I can do that myself!”
All welcome. There’s no charge for repairs, food or drinks. Donations are appreciated!
Place: Uniting church hall, corner of Mowbray Road and Pacific Hwy
Time /date: 1 to 3pm Sundays April 2 and April 9 (first and second Sundays of the month)
Remember to make time to visit the wonderful Permapatch Community Garden, located right next to the Repair Café.
How often do people throw out stuff like cooler bags and backpacks because there is a rip or the zippers don’t work? The answer we all know is heaps and heaps of time as these are cheap and easy to replace!
The sewing team rescued 2 such items at the 12th Feb Café opening.
From our volunteer Sarah -“One repair I really liked was patching a cooler bag. So many of these things probably end up in landfill so it was great to be able to put a patch over a rip in the bag and to repair the zip seam so we managed to prolong its life for another year or two.”
From our volunteer Tracy -“Daisy’s backpack had come apart at the seams at the top. Since it was nylon I could use a lighter to stop the lining fraying further and then stitch it back in place.”
Feedback from visitor Daisy – “Thank you so much for what you did for my backpack today. It was amazing, as good as new, despite your proclamation that it was rough! I am so happy with the job and am very grateful”.
Please visit us in March. All are welcomed. If you haven’t got anything needing repair, just come in for a free trade organic cappuccino or a cup of tea or better still herbal tea freshly harvested from the garden. Then be tempted by some home-made snacks.
All free. Donations welcomed.
Date: Sundays March 5 and 12 ( always the first 2 Sundays of the month)
Time: 1pm to 3pm
Place: Chatswood South Uniting Church Hall, corner Mowbray Road and Pacific Hwy
Lastly make sure you have time to wander over to visit the magnificent Permapatch Community Garden which is a stone throw away and marvel at its lush edible crops!
For more information contact Wendy 9420 4884 or 0410280912
or email repaircafesydneynorth@ gmail.com.
Please visit website http://www.repaircafesydneynorth.wordpress.com
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It was another pretty hot day on Feb 12. Never mind the heat as we had enough visitors and repairs to keep everyone happily busy. The wonderful Ian is back from his holidays and as you can see he’s back on track!
Helen and Liz, our hardworking cheerful helpers welcoming visitors on arrival!
Sarah, one of our wonderful band of sewers fixing a pair of trousers.
Tracy, another talented sewer, stitching and fixing a common landfill item, a backpack with split lining and a crook zipper with Diana Watson visiting from Permaculture Sydney North(a remarkable organization that everyone should consider joining) looking on and waiting her turn for the next fix!
Our multi- skilled and mulit talented Glenda having a much deserved break just about to partake of a yummy home made goodie from the “cafe” side of our Repair Cafe.
WendyB, who pioneered the birth of this repair cafe is hard at work fixing a pair of shoes for Belinda with little Davey looking on. Never too young to learn!
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Repair Café Sydney North is open coming Sunday 12 Feb, 1-3pm
“Another fantastic Repair Cafe at the community garden, despite temperatures reaching around 38 degrees! Brave re-users arrived red in the face and damp in the shirt, to have their jewellery fixed, tools sharpened, or just to have a cappuccino and do some knitting. The ukulele players managed some enthusiastic tunes, which were much appreciated and some of us sang and danced along, whilst serving coffees and food, networking and making yet more plans to help the poor old planet. Wendy D. made the usual fantastic array of cake, dips, gluten free and sugar free foods to suit absolutely everybody, from lovely organic produce from her garden (try the rhubarb and lemon cake …..mmmmm….dribble….!), plus some very cool cold drinks from her lemon grass, chocolate mint etc. to keep us hydrated and stop our brains boiling….
Lovely volunteers like Wendy B and Bridget repaired things in between fanning themselves and Big Al sharpened doggedly whilst wiping sweat from his fevered brow, and Arjen got toasted.
Celia managed to look glam whilst fanning herself and keeping us all in order, ably assisted by the hot Helen on the front desk.
Whew! Don’t forget to come along next Sunday 11th February between 1 and 3 pm for another very cool cafe and gain some hot knowledge!”
Written and photos supplied by Mandy Stubbs
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Since we started a year ago in January 2016, we have repaired more than 500 items. That is 500+ less items going into landfill!!!
We have 5 repair “stations”- gadget fixing ie ∗battery operated or stuff with mechanical moving parts, jewellery/ ceramics, sewing of all description including backpacks/umbrellas, shoes and garden tools/knives sharpening.
Below are the success stories from 3 of our wonderful volunteers:
From Arjen: A couple with 5 year old twins brought in a Christmas teddy bear. It was supposed to move and tell a Christmas story upon pressing a switch that was inside its hand but it wasn’t doing that anymore. The boys were really attached to it. However such a bear was not available in Australia anymore, so buying a new one wasn’t an option.
I had to open up the arm by undoing the thread. The switch was sewn onto the hand on the inside, after undoing the threads holding the switch we were able to take it out. Ian and I soldered the wire back onto the switch, stitched the switch back inside the hand after feeding the wire back through the arm, connected the wire back to the mechanism and then went on to put the mechanism back into the bear (which was not that easy, we got it back in place as much as we could and it did the job). The bear works again and can be operated as normal via the switch in its hand. 🙂
Kids and parents were VERY pleased and this was a really rewarding feeling!
From Bridget: Many of the items I help to fix, while not having much financial value, are incredibly rich in memory and meaning. An elderly lady came with a broken bracelet that had been the very first piece of jewellery ever given to her by her father. She’d kept it and worn it all those years. The catch had finally given way but we were able to find a suitable replacement in a box of jewellery bits and pieces that a generous previous visitor had donated. We reattached it to the bracelet and all was good again!”
Bridget is starting a pop up jewellery repair café at her North Sydney studio on Feb 16. Book online http://studio2017.com.au/projectspace/
From Glenda: I repaired a lady’s lovely large vase with the whole rim broken and a 160 year old decanter that had also been badly broken around the neck and rim. The same lady even had a small stone elephant who had lost his ball from the end of his trunk! She was delighted with all the repairs and so were we!
When: Sunday Feb 5 and 12 ( first 2 Sundays each month )
Where: Church hall, Chatswoods South Uniting, Mowbray road and pacific Hwy
http://www.repaircafesydneynorth.wordpress.com
All free. Donations welcomed . If nothing to repair, just drop in for coffee and home made cakes and don’t forget to wander over to visit the Permapatch Community Garden.
At our first Café for the year 2017…
It was a frustrating problem on the Gadget table. The visitor had brought in a toaster – one side was working, the other side wasn’t. Should you advise them to toss it and buy a new toaster, or live with it? The Gadgets team didn’t think they could fix it.
They were reluctant to send the visitor away with nothing, so they cleaned it out – there was a stash of crumbs in its innards.
Turns out the crumbs were tripping the switch… a clean-out was enough to set it working again.
Then, at the sewing table, there was the wedding gown with a less-than-perfect fit. The visitor was envisioning a complicated set of darts to lose the excess fullness. The sewing team advised shifting the buttons instead. A simple operation – and one that the visitor was delighted to work on for herself.
One of the most satisfying moments at the Repair Café is when the visitor says “so that’s how it’s done -I can do that myself!”
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In the Garden, the Day went well. To begin with, there were ten people arrived early for a talk on pests and diseases, which evolved into a problem-solving session of‘ask the experts’, Mandy and Jeremy from PSN. It was all very pleasant. One lady said straight out that she liked the idea of Permapatch Garden relocating to the Artamon Bowlo. A couple of people said they would put info about us on their websites, blogs etc…
Over the extended Day, there were more than 100 people through the hall. Some were repeat visitors with items to mend. Some were passers-bye, just curious about the Café, who stopped to enjoy the coffee or cool drinks and the Portuguese tarts, apple cake and savoury rice-and-sesame balls. Others had heard about it on Facebook or community email lists.
There were a dozen in the ukelele band along with Janet France, (just awarded the Willoughby Citizen of the Year!) There were friends and word-of-mouth visitors and many helpers from the Coal Loader Community Garden…
Thanks to all who worked to make it a successful day. Our next Cafés will be Sunday 5th and 12th Feb.
Congratulations too, to Bridget, who will be hosting a Pop-up Repair Café for jewellery on 16th February at her new studio in Ridge St North Sydney.
Repair Cafe enquiries- enter comments on this website or call Wendy 0410280912 or send email to repaircafesydneynorth@gmail.com
Permapatch enquiries – Mandy, President Permapatch Community Garden – www.permapatch.org.au or call 94362891
More Photos …
