Learning about our repair skills and advice for patrons!

There was a line snaking down the sidewalk outside the Park Branch Library well before the second Haight-Nopa Repair Café opened.  Word of mouth, flyers in the surrounding neighborhoods, postings on various event listings and on Next Door had worked some magic.  Clipboards with the registration forms and waivers were handed out down the line to speed up getting those first patrons in the door to the waiting repairers.  In the end we had to turn people away but not before we had rung the bell nearly 60 times to signal to the café that there had been a successful repair

Our advice? Bring a book or a friend to chat to, in the instance you have to wait in line.

Our six sewists were the most prolific repairers, speedily mending 31 of 35 items registered including holes, tears, and missing buttons on jackets, shirts, jumpers and pants and a number of items having multiple sewists figure out the best repair. We were thrilled we managed to keep three backpacks in use through mending straps and holes – even without an industrial sewing machine on hand.  We couldn’t fix the problem zippers – a notoriously hard mend without complete replacement (which we can’t do at the Repair Café).

We won’t be taking on any more broken zippers at registration. Take note! 

The electronics repairers were also kept busy, with a much more challenging set of problems, but they still managed to repair 11 of 26 things. Successes included a shredder, clocks and lamps, a CD player and a vacuum cleaner head. We have a fifty-fifty chance with toasters!  Cheap headphones and ear buds proved even harder to repair (only 1 of 4 successful). A free-standing lamp was tackled by a Justin-Curtis collab that required a couple of runs to the hardware store to buy parts. The owners were patient – and so happy that after 84 minutes it was working again, with an ingenious work around and a new switch.  

Bring replacement parts if you know what’s broken or missing! It will speed up the process and/or increase the chance of success.

Multi-talented sewists and electronics folks repaired 7 of 9 pieces of jewelry often requiring fine soldering work on rings (including an engagement ring!), bracelets and necklaces. Patrons were thrilled to walk out wearing a piece that we often heard had been sitting in a drawer for months.

Dig out those broken items and come and see what our amazing volunteers might be able to do for you.

Thanks to all our repairers:  April, Joshua, Lilly, Mary, Claudia, Nola, Jenna, Matt, Cooper, Caleb, Vishnu, Nathan, Justin, Curtis, Volker, Jay, Kevin, Taran; and to our logistics helpers: Taylor, Emma, Leland, Abby, Matthew, Sofia, Molly, Sam and finally to our sweet treat providers Terry, Johanna, Justin, Abby and Barbara.