Save Article
On a Wednesday night in July, the normally quiet Glen Park branch of the San Francisco Public Library hummed with the sounds of clacking sewing machines, upbeat music and people chatting. But no librarians were shushing, because for a few hours, the library had been officially transformed into a clothing repair clinic.
Mollie Agahi stood at the front of the line of people waiting to be matched with an expert clothing mender. She brought with her a half-completed yellow dress she hoped to turn into a nightgown, but the process was slow-going without a sewing machine at home.
Luckily, that wasn’t a problem for Christine Haynes, who greeted Agahi cheerfully and got to work with her tools…