Garment Sewing as a Leisure Craft

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the reasons for garment sewing as a leisure craft and to describe the meanings behind the activity. The study was based on the written narratives of 781 crafters aged 19 to 91 years. First-person narratives were collected via a request published in regional newspapers in all 19 provinces in Finland. The request related to a loosely formulated assignment to encourage crafters to write about the meanings of crafting as a leisure activity. The study comprised a two-phase data analysis. The first sample of 100 narratives, which included references to sewing, was selected and analysed using abductive qualitative content analysis. In the second phase, the whole data (N=781) were analysed using Atlas.ti, initially through automatic search and coding features for sewing, clothing and design. Each code was then analysed in more detail in order to form new categories. The new data from the second phase were also compared with the results of the first phase to provide more in-depth interpretations. The analysis showed how craft making has changed from a necessary activity to an enjoyable activity for increasing well-being. It also revealed how the reasons for sewing garments at home have changed over the years. During the analysis, four types of reasons for sewing garments were identified: Former sewer, Utility sewing, Process-centred sewing and Product-centred sewing. The results of this study show how a garment can serve as a symbol and sewing as self-fulfilment for active garment sewers.