Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL) organizers ask, "Do you have a shirt missing a button, a favorite wool sock with a hole in it, or a tote bag with a loose handle? Don't we all?" They suggest there's no need for one to get rid of these items - or repair them all by their lonesome - when they can fix their things, or learn to do so, in the company of friends and neighbors.
Beginning on Saturday, February 3, the public is invited to bring projects and learn new skills at Darn It All!, a monthly mending bee at the RFPL, 65 Westminster Street in Bellows Falls. Darn It All! is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. each first Saturday of the month.
Admission is free and open to all, regardless of residency in Rockingham; attendees age 16 and younger must be accompanied by a responsible adult. The library is ADA-compliant with appropriate ramps, restrooms, and an elevator.
Veteran menders who have piles of books about the art of darning as well as those who have never threaded a sewing needle in their life, people of all skills - or none - are encouraged to attend.
Darn It All! is not only for those repairing their clothes and accessories; it's also for those who are knitting, sewing, or doing other fiber arts.
What Darn It All! isn't is a tailor shop. While skill-sharing and helping one another are features of these sessions, Darn It All! is strictly do-it-yourself, and each participant alone is responsible for their repairs. Likewise, there may be sewing tools to share, but it's best for folks to bring their own.
Darn It All! organizers and Bellows Falls residents, Lydia Daum and Wendy M. Levy, created this mending bee to provide a dedicated time to repair clothing and accessories to extend their use, to learn and share mending skills, and to do this in the company of new friends and old.
For more information, email Daum and Levy at darnitall@fastmail.com.
This Town and Village item was submitted to The Commons.