From shoes and shirts to tables and chairs, here’s how to fix what’s broken (or just needs an update) | Canada Voices

Living a low-waste lifestyle is no small feat in the age of online shopping. But as the climate crisis increasingly demands that we make changes to our buying habits, many are searching for accessible ways to limit purchases and repair what they already own.

The need to shop less is even more pressing given the trade war with the United States and the recent volatility of the stock market, new realities that have left many Canadians avoiding American goods and generally tightening their purse strings.

I tried sashiko mending and discovered more than one way to fix my clothes

While learning how to mend your belongings may feel overwhelming, Canada is full of artists and makers who have learned the trades of repair and upcycling – and who are eager to share what they know.

The Globe and Mail spoke with five Canadians about how they honed their skills in mending and DIY, and their tips for holding onto belongings just a little bit longer.

The Sorry Girls – home decorators and YouTube personalities

Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright’s foray into DIY home design began in their Humber College dorm rooms in Toronto. Both were students in film production with a passion for home design, so it seemed only natural to make YouTube videos about the easy ways they were enhancing their spaces.

They dubbed themselves the Sorry Girls, a nod to the popular trope of Canadians being excessively apologetic. Fifteen years later, the pair have amassed more than two million YouTube subscribers by sharing quick room decor tips plus entire home makeovers and renovations. How did they develop their skills? By attending “YouTube University,” as they call it.

“We started with small tools like drills and then slowly added, and all of a sudden we were using a table saw and it somehow wasn’t the scariest thing we’d ever done,” MacDermaid said.

Even today, with their wealth of skills and abilities, the pair concede that they rarely film a video where they’re not trying at least one thing for the first time. They also frequently encourage people to keep sustainability in mind.

“We’re living on a planet with a finite amount of resources, so anything that’s not necessary to make new, I think we should avoid,” Wright said. “You could decorate house after house with things that already exist in this world, and I think we should be taking advantage of that.”

The Sorry Girls’ tips: How to decorate more sustainably

• Start by looking at how the pieces you already have can be upcycled or used in different ways.
• Painting is the easiest way to upcycle a decor item without the need for a drill. You can paint an old picture frame to elevate it, or paint a jar that was headed for recycling to use it as a vase or a stand-alone piece.
• Reupholstering an item can give it new life. Start small, say with a cushioned stool or pouf, which simply calls for covering a round surface with fabric that is stapled underneath. Don’t worry about the staples looking bad; they won’t be visible.
• Dyeing duvets, sheets and other linens can disguise stains and make the item look new again.
• If there’s a repair needed in your home but you’re not sure how to go about it, there’s likely an online tutorial that can teach you.

Marcus Faccenda – furniture flipper and DIY social-media personality

Marcus Faccenda used to spend his days working as an account assistant at an insurance brokerage, often bored and scrolling on his phone. He was having a particularly slow day about three years ago when he came across someone flipping and reselling old furniture on Facebook Marketplace. Faccenda – who enjoyed thrifting and working with his hands – was intrigued.

“I thought it was such a cool idea – taking something old, making it new,” he said. “I was inspired.” Just a few weeks later, Faccenda picked up a dresser that was left on the side of the road. “I refinished it, and a couple of days later it sold for $500.” After that, he was hooked.

Faccenda continued to get hold of old furniture pieces that needed a little love, working on them once he got home from his regular job. He’d post the completed items online to sell, and began to grow a social-media following of people interested in refinishing furniture. About a year ago, he quit his job to pursue the side project and content creation full-time.

“I had no real skills when going into furniture flipping,” he said. “A lot of it is trial and error. Once you make the mistake once, you’re going to make sure not to make it again.”

His projects have expanded into furniture building and DIY home renovations. While Faccenda enjoys the physical work itself, he also gets a lot of satisfaction out of showing people what they can do with furniture they no longer love.

“If you put a little money into resources and supplies, you can learn to give your furniture a whole new life without having to throw it away.”

Faccenda’s tips: How to give your furniture new life

• Buy pieces made from real wood. If the back of the piece looks spongy, it’s likely made from fibreboard MDF. If the graining along the back is continuous, it’s usually wood.
• Changing hardware, such as swapping out knobs or handles, can give any furniture a new modern look.
• Don’t be afraid to paint a piece. The paint can always be removed or painted over again.
• The most important part of redoing an item is the prep work, including cleaning and sanding. Doing it thoroughly will ensure new paint and other changes you make last.
• Don’t use harsh solutions or chemicals when cleaning products you’ve painted; they can strip the surface or change the colour. Instead use a gentle dish soap (and sometimes even just water will suffice).

Arounna Khounnoraj – multidisciplinary artist, author and co-owner of Bookhou

Arounna Khounnoraj doesn’t remember a time when her clothes weren’t hand-mended. After her family immigrated to Canada from Laos when Khounnoraj was 4, her mother got a job as a seamstress at Tip Top Tailors. She made most of the family’s clothes from scratch and would mend any damages.

There was a stigma associated with wearing repaired clothing at that time, however, because it implied poverty. Khounnoraj’s mother would mend items in an invisible way to save her from ridicule at school.

As an adult, Khounnoraj has embraced doing the opposite, using bright colours and patterns to emphasize any repairs. “I liked the idea of visible mending because it felt like a celebration of the hole,” she said.

Khounnoraj is now one of the foremost textile artists and makers in Canada. She runs a multidisciplinary studio called Bookhou in Toronto alongside her husband, John Booth, where they sell handmade goods and sewing tools. She has written five books on a variety of fibre arts techniques.

She believes a growing awareness of the harms of fast fashion have triggered a rising interest in clothing repairs. “When people actually mend their knits, they start to connect with that item because they spent all this time fixing it, and then they have a whole different view of it.”

Khounnoraj’s tips: How to take better care of your knits

• Put your sweaters away for the season properly by washing them by hand, laying them flat to dry and storing them in containers to avoid moths. Any tightly sealed containers will work.
• If you have a tiny hole in a knit, one of the easiest ways to fix it is to take a piece of yarn that is a similar weight and just go around the hole with a needle – under, over, under, over – leaving the two tails loose. Use them to tie a knot and then pull it, almost as if you’re cinching the hole. This will close the hole and prevent it from getting bigger.
• If you have a large hole in a knit, the weave mend is likely the best method. This involves creating a warp and a weft – the long yarns that are held in tension vertically and the yarn that is drawn horizontally through the warp, respectively – and then weaving through all the different layers. You can put a tennis ball or a mason jar underneath while doing this to prevent the sweater from stretching.
• If a sweater is too damaged to repair, you can cut it up into pieces and use the material to repair and patch other sweaters of a similar weight.
• You can also simply hide holes or damage by sewing on patches or embroidering designs overtop of the flaw.

Anna-Marie Janzen – seamstress and owner of Reclaim Mending

At the age of 3, Anna-Marie Janzen learned to sew sitting at her grandmother’s feet on the kitchen floor, using Fisher-Price toys, a large blunted needle and some yarn.

“My grandmother was a refugee and had experienced immense poverty in Ukraine, so she made almost all her own clothing,” Janzen said. “Repairing clothing was such a normal part of how we took care of our clothes growing up.”

In high school, Janzen learned how the garment industry was contributing to climate change – an understanding that only deepened her passion for mending clothing. The biggest issue is overproduction, Janzen says, and the belief that we need a new outfit for every occasion is part of what’s driving it.

“You go back even just one generation and people would have their Sunday best and then maybe two regular outfits. We have this idea that we need a lot more than we really do.”

While in university, she began repairing friends’ clothes, mostly just for fun. But when she found herself burnt out from an office job a few years later, she decided to try full-time mending. That was nine years ago, and she hasn’t looked back. Janzen now runs a sewing and alterations service in Winnipeg called Reclaim Mending, and she also offers lessons, workshops and video tutorials online.

“The more people who can be empowered to do this themselves, the better,” she said. “The most sustainable thing is what you’ve already got.”

Janzen’s tips: How to make your clothes last longer

• Wash your clothing properly by following label directions. Also, spot-treat stains and scrub armpits as they get discoloured so you can wash items less often. Dish soap or a laundry bar both work well for this.
• Fix clothing before any damage worsens. If material is thinning (such as denim between the thighs of a pair of jeans) fix it before a hole actually forms. This will make for an easier, more discrete and more affordable repair.
• Learn some basic hand stitches, such as the button stitch, the running stitch, the back stitch and the ladder stitch
• Do clothing swaps with your friends or community.
• Expand your ideas of how items can be used. Think about how you can rewear a garment in a different way, or ask your local seamstress or tailor how an item can be altered. For example, changing a neckline can give a top a whole new look.

Lorena Agolli – owner of Sole Survivor and cobbler with Cirque du Soleil

Lorena Agolli was unsatisfied in her retail job and looking for a more creative way to make a living. “I had just hit a point in my life where I had fallen to rock bottom,” she said. That’s when she discovered cobbling.

At a shoemaking workshop, she learned how to craft a pair of house slippers, and realized how fulfilling it was to work with her hands. “I looked down and felt like I was being held by the thing I put effort into” – a feeling she says she couldn’t get enough of. Agolli spent the next year apprenticing with shoemaker Peter Feeney. In 2013, she became the owner and head cobbler of Sole Survivor shoe repair in Toronto, where she has prioritized sharing her trade with other female-identifying folks.

As the years have gone by, she has learned what materials make a good shoe and relayed that knowledge to her customers, encouraging them to buy quality items that will last and can more easily be repaired. She also regularly shares tips and tricks with her more than 10,000 Instagram followers.

“The longer I’ve been in the business, the more it’s really sat with me that we are doing important work here without even realizing how important it is.”

Agolli’s tips: How to hold onto your footwear longer

• When buying shoes, look for pairs that are Goodyear welted, meaning a strip of leather, rubber or plastic has been sewn around the perimeter as opposed to glued on. This makes it sturdier, more waterproof and easier to repair.
• Wipe down your shoes when they’re muddy, clean off salt with water and vinegar, condition your leather with a beeswax product such as Red Wing Leather Conditioner and invest in a good sneaker cleaner.
• If a zipper pull breaks on a pair of boots, purchase clip-on zipper pulls from a supply store. If a heel tip falls off, a cobbler can easily replace it. If the entire heel separates, that can also be repaired but it’s a more complex job.
• If a pair of shoes isn’t damaged but you don’t like it any more, you can try changing the colour with dye or leather paint.
• You can also embroider or embellish shoes, or turn an old pair of sandals into slides by cutting off the backstrap.