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