We’ve had another email from our good friend Petra:

I’ve got a question about a silicone baking mat.

I have two of them, but accidentally in both of them there is a cut from a knife or pizza slicer.

Does anyone know of a method to repair these cuts?

I can’t think of something myself and also google doesn’t give any glues. So who knows…

It’s a very good question – silicone cookware seems to be *the* thing in the shops at the moment – mats, trays, cake trays – but I would worry about accidentally slicing it or whatever too.

So does anyone know how you might go about fixing one?

Because she’s a keen fixer of things, I told Alice in Blogland about our new “Repair This” feature and she replied that she had something in need of mending, but didn’t know how to go about it:

It’s a pair of waterproof trousers which have taped seams. Basically I bent over in them and the seam split right down the middle, leaving the fabric intact but tearing the seam tape. Can I buy waterproofing seam tape from somewhere? What’s it called? And do I need to sew it in some sort of special way so that it ends up waterproof – if I do it wrong then I guess all my needle holes will let in water!

Any ideas?

So first up on our new “How can I repair this?” feature, how can I repair a pair of leaking trainers/sneakers?

I’ve got a pair of canvas trainers that I love – they’re like the ubiquitous Converse ones but No Sweat ones so sweatshop-free. I’ve worn the hell out of them for about five years and now they’ve both developed leaks in the sole – little tiny cracks/tears around the ball but on one of them the upper has come away from the lower slightly at the back too. I’d rather they didn’t become just fair weather footwear – so how can I fix them?

If they were hard soled shoes, I’d take them to a cobbler to be resoled but am not sure if they’d fix soft rubber soled trainers.

What about at-home fixes? I remember reading somewhere that someone suggested using silicone sealant to fix a similar sneaker leak – anyone tried that? Any better alternatives?

I’ve been thinking about doing a “Repair This” site for a couple of years now – more of a reference guide like Compost This than a discussion place – but for one reason or another, it’s just not happened, and it occurred to me the other week that actually, it’s really quite appropriate to have it on here anyway. So … new feature – “How can I repair this?”!

Repairing is, of course, an often forgotten part of the 3Rs but is really a core part of the “reduce” – if you fix something you’ve already got, you don’t need to think of a reuse for the broken item or to recycle it, and you don’t need to buy/acquire a replacement.

Obviously the nature of the repair depends on what’s broken and how, but a surprising amount of things can be fixed in 15 minutes with a bit of thread/wire/duct tape or a new washer/drop of epoxy adhesive. Sometimes it’s just really just a case of having the confidence to give it a try.

So, if you’ve got anything you’d like to repair but don’t know where to start, drop me an email at repair@recyclethis.co.uk. Conversely, if you’ve fixed something really well or in an interesting way and want to show off your awesome handiwork, send me an email and I’ll feature it on the site.

Anyway, first up, how can I repair leaking trainers/sneakers?