Mend & Remake – Community Sewing & Repair Workshops

Fix your clothes. Learn simple skills. Connect with your community.

Free community mending and sewing workshops

Mend & Remake is a series of peer-learning workshops where people come together to learn and share sewing and repair skills. Instead of throwing clothes away, we help you fix, remake, and give them a longer life.

You can:

  • Mend holes, tears and broken seams
  • Adjust clothing that no longer fits
  • Upcycle garments into something new

We provide sewing machines, tools, and guidance. You bring the clothes.

Reducing textile waste and building community skills

Australians send around 300,000 tonnes of clothing to landfill every year. Much of it could be repaired, reused, or remade.

Mend & Remake helps to:

  • Reduce textile waste
  • Build everyday repair skills
  • Encourage creativity and mindfulness
  • Support wellbeing and a sense of achievement
  • Bring people together and reduce loneliness

How Mend & Remake works

  • Drop in during session times
  • Bring clothes or textiles you want to mend, alter or remake
  • Use shared sewing machines and basic tools
  • Learn from qualified sewists and volunteers
  • Work at your own pace. You can stay for part or all of the session

When and where to join us

Mend & Remake runs regularly throughout the year at Waverley Library.

Session times alternating each month

  • Wednesdays: 6pm–7.30pm
  • Sundays: 2pm–3.30pm

Dates and venue details are published on our event listing page and via our social channels.

Bookings are essential.
All attendees must complete the WHS induction when booking their ticket.
If the event is sold out, please join the waiting list and we’ll let you know if a place becomes available.

Our story and the people behind Mend & Remake

Mend & Remake started as a small, community-led response to fast fashion, rising waste, and the loss of everyday repair skills. What began as informal repair sessions has grown into a regular program where people share knowledge, reduce waste, and reconnect with making.

Chiara – Organiser & Founder
Chiara is a Bondi local and mother of three. She founded Mend & Remake and runs the project, coordinating sessions, managing marketing, and providing sewing machines, tools, and hands-on expertise. She also volunteers at Waverley Repair Cafe and engages with Regen Sydney to bring sustainability practices to the community.

Kit – Support Project Manager & Community Convenor
Kit supports coordination, welcomes participants, and helps guide newcomers. She teaches creative repurposing techniques using a wide range of materials and strengthens Mend & Remake’s connection to the wider sustainability community.

Lise – Project Manager, Creative Repair & Upcycling Specialist
Lise supports the program through project management, planning, volunteer recruitment, marketing, WHS processes and reporting to ensure events run smoothly. She is also a fashion designer and sewist, drawing on her background in visual arts, fashion and sustainability to guide participants through hands-on upcycling and creative projects.

Hayley – Design and communications
Hayley is skilled in design and communication with extensive experience in the nonprofit sector. She is working on making the attendee journey smoother and safer with clear and kind communication and cute design elements.

Sara – Project support | Fashion Designer & Maker
Sara is a self-taught sewer and sustainable fashion advocate. She guides participants in repair, upcycling, and design-led projects, inspiring creative problem-solving and mindful garment use.

Marta – Project support | Sewing & Crochet Specialist
Marta is a qualified fashion sewist and crochet expert. She teaches mending, upcycling, and textile skills, helping participants gain confidence and creativity with hands-on repair techniques.

Kaya – Sewist
Kaya has been a long-term attendee before providing her sewing skills as a volunteer. She loves cats and is very creative whilst staying practical to help people repair and make new things!

Jess – Sewist
Jess has been sewing and creating outfits since she was about 12, when her mum first taught her. She later studied fashion and graphic design and now works as a graphic designer. Jess believes the best clothes are the ones you make yourself and loves sharing her skills and passion for sustainability through mending and making.

Shi & Summer – Finance Support
Shi and Summer manage the budget and ensure financial processes are in place, keeping the program running smoothly and transparently.

Support the project

Mend & Remake is a free, community-run program. Donations help cover the real costs of running the workshops, including sewing machine maintenance, tools, materials, and facilitation.

Ways to support the program:

  • Donate funds: You will have the option to make a cash donation when registering for this event. Any amount helps keep the workshops running and accessible.
  • Donate in kind: We accept fabric, sewing tools, notions, machines, and other useful materials.
  • Volunteer: We welcome beginner and advanced sewists, event organisers, social media supporters, and anyone interested in helping with the coordination and management of the program.
View current volunteer positions.

If you would like to volunteer or donate in kind, please contact [email protected].

Welcoming and accessible

We aim to make Mend & Remake accessible to everyone (+18):

  • Beginners are very welcome
  • You can observe or participate at your own pace
  • Venues are selected with accessibility in mind

If you have specific access needs, please contact us before attending. The venue is wheelchair accessible. Note If more than 10 people attend the event it can get quite noisy.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need sewing experience?
No. Beginners are very welcome.

What should I bring?
Bring clean clothes you want to mend or alter. Tools and machines are provided.

Can kids attend?
Due to health and safety, children cannot currently attend Mend & Remake.

Is there a cost?
The workshops are free. Donations are optional and appreciated.

Do I need to book?
Sesions require booking due to space limits. Check the event listing for the upcoming events.

Thanks to our supporters

Mend & Remake is proudly supported by Waverley Council’s Our Local Community Fund.