Sarah Wachter fed a pair of silky pants through her electric sewing machine. The seam of the crotch had been ripped out and needed restitching.
"It's a quick little repair. It is just a question of knowing how to handle the fabric and what it needs," Wachter said. A few seconds later, the pants are re-stitched and ready for wearing.
Most days, Wachter creates bags for her small business. But on a recent Sunday, she offered mending services at a clothing swap and repair fair.
Hundreds of people were gathered at the Cambridge Multicultural Center outside Boston to sift through piles of clothes, unload their own closet cleanouts and consult a group of skilled repairers, like Wachter, on how to fix rips and holes in their favorite pieces of clothing.
Repairs started at $5 and went up from there, depending on complexity. Patching the knee hole in a pair of jeans, for example, might cost $35.
Across the room from Wachter was Galust Khaytyan, owner of Jimmy's Shoe Repair. He consulted one attendee, Elizabeth, on a torn pair of leather leggings.
He could patch the leggings from underneath, but warned her it might leave a slight scar.
"It will add character," Elizabeth reassured him. "There's so much waste out there, and it's good to reuse what we have, or give it new life."
People like Elizabeth across New England are repairing and reusing clothes to save not only their sentimental garments, but also money. All while reducing the use of fossil fuels.
Some are recruiting the skilled services of people like Wachter and Khaytyan, while others are learning to mend and sew themselves.
A dirty industry
Clothing — from manufacturing to distribution to disposal — contributes between 2% and 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions a year. And its consumption is short-lived: Americans throw out some 17 million tons of textiles and clothes a year, according to the most recent data from the EPA, with most of it ending up in landfills. Worldwide, half a million tons of textile microplastics enter the ocean every year.
Company and consumer trends contributed to this fast fashion cycle: clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2015, while the number of times people used a garment before throwing it away decreased 36%, according to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
The environmental impacts of new production can be offset by reusing, mending or donating clothes. These alternatives make up what's called a circular economy, said Jasmina Burek, an assistant professor at UMass Lowell who studies the life cycle of clothing.
Burek estimates that keeping just one pound of clothes in use, rather than sending it to a landfill, can prevent about seven pounds of greenhouse gas emissions; that's roughly equivalent to not driving eight miles in a car.
These small amounts add up. At UMass Lowell's annual thrift day in 2024, where students swapped and mended clothes, they avoided greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the carbon dioxide sequestered by almost 5 acres of forest in one year, according to Burek's calculations.
Learning to mend
Some New Englanders are choosing to mend clothes themselves instead of paying the neighborhood seamstress. For some, it's about relearning — or learning for the first time — a skill that used to be commonplace. For others, it's a creative practice.
Public libraries across the region host mending classes, taught by people like Catherine Karp. Karp specializes in visible mending, a technique that uses colorful thread and fabrics to patch holey sweaters and frayed hems. These repairs are not meant to blend in.
At a pop-up class at the Loveday boutique in West Concord, Karp demonstrated how to use different stitches for a variety of looks.
"Part of this is very improvisational and sometimes I compare it to jazz," she said. "You can just make it up and it will sound beautiful."
Karp walked the participants through how to thread a needle and practice a running stitch on a sample piece of fabric. Other stitches include the back stitch, the whip stitch for attaching patches and the blanket stitch for frayed edges.
Mending student Susan Ward wanted to fix a pair of jeans she's had for 15 years. She loved the way they fit, but she had worn a hole through the knee. Ward decided on a yellow and green cotton patch to whip stitch over the knee hole.
"Now I don't have to throw them away," she said. She called it a "win-win" that mending could give the jeans new life while protecting the environment.
As more people take up mending and sewing as a hobby, Megan Kilcoyne, owner of Homme Repair tailoring in Massachusetts, hopes it gives people an appreciation for the labor of garmentmaking.
"When you're at those mending classes, and you're having trouble threading the needle, it's like, you have to remember somebody spent their whole life learning how to do that," she said.
Fiber friends
Learning these basic skills offers a glimpse into the true cost of clothing. It's a price tag well understood by a group of skilled menders in New Hampshire who meet twice a month at the Nashua Public Library. The library provides sewing supplies and members bring their fabric and clothes.
At a recent meeting, Doris Basquil darned socks. She co-founded this visible mending group, known as "Fiber Friends," in 2022.
The group uses old and discounted fabric to creatively patch holes and revive vintage pieces. To them, these scraps aren't trash; they're resources. An added bonus: the older fabrics and clothes are sometimes more durable than buying new ones.
"The material is better, the construction techniques are better…even if they have a flaw, it makes more sense," Caroline Liebenow said. "So it's like an investment."
And waste reduction and sustainability are always in mind, said Fiber Friends member Amanda Stinson.
"All these bits and bobs that would have ended up in a landfill or choking a fish are now being repurposed and have a job again," she said.
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