TROUBLESHOOTING — Rebekah Roundtree, left, helped Kylee Panepucci work out problems with her sewing machine during the Winter Mending Workshop at Urban Thrift Saturday. -- Christopher Dacanay

STEUBENVILLE — Volunteers taught lessons about how to give old clothes new life through a basic mending skills workshop at Urban Thrift Saturday.

Jointly hosted by Urban Thrift, Strong Towns Steubenville and Re-Craft Steubenville, the Winter Mending Workshop offered stations to learn skills including button attachment, embellishing, patching, sewing and more. Attendees could bring their own clothes in need of repair, known as “projects,” to be mended with help from the sponsors’ volunteers and other attendees with the know-how.

It was a lively afternoon of skill-sharing, with volunteers and attendees offering tips and tricks, as well as casual conversation. The mending projects continued until Urban Thrift’s closing time, but organizers were optimistic about more workshops to come.

Shannon Monroe, a core team member for the grassroots community revitalization group Strong Towns Steubenville, orchestrated the collaborative event and led others through some of the mending skills. STS’s goal is to improve amenities already existing within a community Monroe said, and the same goes for the community’s clothing.

“Instead of disposing of resources that we have, we can use them in a renewable and sustainable way,” Monroe said. “Strong Towns tends to focus on repairing the built environment and making it very friendly to living communities. … It’s a natural extension of that to think about how we can repair the environment for our bodies, which is our clothing.”

To build that sustainability, individuals must have the necessary skills, which is where Re-Craft Steubenville comes in. A pop-up thrift store for craft supplies, Re-Craft was founded as a passion project by Katie Takats, who Monroe reached out to for help passing on the essential mending skills.

Takats described Re-Craft as “if Goodwill and JOANN had a baby,” being a hub for anything craft-related. Focused on “creative reuse,” Re-Craft receives donated craft supplies and either sells them at discount prices or donates them to community-centered creative activities — homeschool art projects, for example. Some may recognize Re-Craft from First Fridays, where Takats offered a community loom for passersby to use.

“Our whole mission is to make art and crafts accessible,” Takats said. “We’re taking away the barriers to people making things.”

There was crafting aplenty on Saturday, aided by some external volunteers like Willow Bosela, a local dressmaker and founder of Wild Roots Sewing. Bosela, who hopes to offer garment-making classes in the future, taught attendees the basics of sewing machine usage.

“I’m just excited to help people learn how to fix what they have,” Bosela said. “I have a passion for people to be able to express their style … and to have something that feels custom to them.”

Also volunteering was Rebekah Roundtree, who has experience altering dresses for David’s Bridal. Having been sewing since she was 6 years old, Roundtree has even made a dress in its entirety for David’s.

On Saturday, Roundtree helped attendee Kylee Panepucci troubleshoot issues with her sewing machine. Panepucci said she’s grateful to be guided through the skills in-person, as online tutorials are often insufficient.

“I was never taught any of this stuff,” Panepucci said. “It could take me a year to figure this out if I didn’t have (Roundtree’s) hands-on help. It makes such a big difference.”

Mary Cate Murtagh attended with two of her children, Raymond and Veronica. Although she had some prior experience with mending, Murtagh walked away from the workshop with some new pointers and a newly mended pair of pants.

“People used to just pass (these skills) onto their kids, but I didn’t have that,” Murtagh said. “I’m excited now to know that I’m going in the right direction.”