Mend and Befriend is a sewing circle with a mission
A new program at the Sebastopol Grange makes old things new again
Looking for a way to celebrate Zero Waste Week? Then check out Mend and Befriend, a new program at the Sebastopol Grange, brought to you by the same people who created the grange’s bi-weekly produce exchange.
“I wanted to schedule the next Mend and Befriend during Zero Waste week because it's been so much fun to sit around with people from their 20s to their 80s and mend things,” said the Grange’s Dena Allen. “Everybody just brings whatever project they want—like, ‘Oh, I need a drawstring on these shorts’ or ‘I need to sew the buttons on this coat, or mend this hole in my favorite shirt.’”
Mend and Befriend is considered a zero waste activity because it encourages people to fix things rather than throwing them out and buying new.
Allen said they also have a clothing swap and a fabric swap at every Mend and Befriend gathering.
“We just put things out, and we sit around mending stuff and helping each other,” she said. “Anybody that wants to can wander over and see what they want from the clothing or fabric swap.”
When you get tired of simple mending, you can try your hand at sashiko, the Japanese art of really fancy mending, which several people in the group practice.
“The idea is that you're going to make the weakness or the hole stronger. But instead of just trying to cover it up, you do something really artsy around it so it comes out both decorative and strong,” Allen explained.
Eventually, Allen said, she hopes the group will expand into something more like a repair café, where people also bring electronics, lamps, and small appliances to be fixed, in addition to clothing.
Allen said her inspiration for starting Mend and Befriend came from a young woman she knows who’s active in the Sunrise movement, a youth-led climate action group here in Sonoma County.
She told me, ‘Oh, I want to get together with friends and just mend and befriend—not stitch and bitch.”
The name “Mend and Befriend” was too good to resist. Allen asked if she could borrow it and get a group going at the grange. The first meeting was in April and, for now at least, they’re happening every other month.
Other Zero Waste Week Activities in Sebastopol and beyond
Mend and Befriend is just one of the activities that the Grange is contributing to North Bay Zero Waste Week, which is a grass-roots campaign to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of waste and ways to live a more zero waste lifestyle. There are a range of activities happening in cities all over the North Bay from July 24 to July 30.
The other Sebastopol activity is the Grange’s Garden Produce Exchange and Donation, which happens on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month through October. People bring extra produce and plant starts from their garden and exchange them with other home gardeners. Any produce that doesn’t get taken gets donated to a local food pantry.
The produce exchange at the Grange (Photo: Sebastopol Grange Facebook)
Both the Produce Exchange and Mend and Befriend are open to the public. You don’t have to be a member of the Grange to join in the fun.
The next Mend and Befriend is July 29, 4:30 to 6:30 pm.
The next Produce Exchange is on July 26, 5 pm to 5:45 pm.
Both activities take place at the Sebastopol Grange Hall, 6000 Sebastopol Ave. (Hwy. 12), just east of Sebastopol.
Find other Zero Waste Week activities here: https://zerowastenorthbay.org/events/.