Volunteering
My volunteering practice is an important extension of my community-engaged research into repair, clothing longevity, and circular fashion systems. Since March 2023 I have been an active volunteer member with the RMIT Repair Café, part of the international Repair Café movement that began in Amsterdam in 2009. Through this work I contribute to a global network of grassroots initiatives advocating for repair as a counter-practice to disposability.
I regularly participate in public-facing events where I demonstrate visible mending techniques and provide free advice to support people to develop their own skills and confidence. These include:
RMIT Repair Café (volunteer mender, since 2023)
Salvation Army “Creative Connections” workshop, Salvos Leadership Summit (supporting retail staff and managers to engage with mending and repair)
Wear and Care Community Repair Series (a collaboration with the RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick program)
Zero Waste Festival, Federation Square (2023, 2024)
Degrowth Festival, Curtain Square Gardens, supporting the Merri Menders
Across these contexts, my role is to advocate for mending as a practical and accessible strategy for reducing clothing waste by extending the life of garments. I demonstrate visible mending techniques—including Sashiko stitching for denim repair, machine and hand patching—and offer tailored mending advice, tips, and troubleshooting. This work generates informal but valuable insights into how people understand and relate to clothing repair, which in turn informs my research, teaching, and the development of community-based initiatives such as Hands-in-the-Hanger.