Skills Café is bringing people together to learn new skills, tap into their creativity and expand their social networks.
The pilot program called RePurpose, Create and Embellish is about reducing the amount of textiles and clothing that ends up in landfill. It shows participants ways to repurpose items, save money and be more creative with used clothes.
In the first session at Sunshine Library, Mending by Hand, participants learned skills such as how to darn holes in jumpers, patch up denim tears and make colour to create the finished work. This was part of the Libraries After Dark program.
Westvale Community Centre hosted the second session called DIY Screen Printing, a workshop which attracted both youth and adults keen to try their hand at creating.
Most participants were doing this for the first time, others remembered dabbling in screen printing in high school. Everyone took away a new item made from recycled clothing or a piece of art work they created.
The Skills Café project is a collaboration between Brimbank libraries, neighbourhood houses and Creative Brimbank.
For further information on community participation events at our libraries, go to www.brimbanklibraries.vic.gov.au/index.php/what-s-on
