As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, a widespread shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) specifically N95 face masks were exposed. This need was quickly answered by home sewers who did not hesitate to answer the request of medical professionals to help fill the PPE shortage. As the United States entered a national quarantine, home sewers turned to social media, specifically Instagram to share their participation and communicate the need to recruit others to join them in their mask sewing efforts. This research aimed to interpret the Instagram post messages shared to understand the motivations of participation in mask sewing efforts. Social media hashtags were used to identify the messages related to home sewing face masks for the pandemic. A netnographic qualitative research approach uncovered five overarching themes: this is helping me, call to action, do it right, rising to the occasion and I’m ready for this.

Garment sewing is undergoing a resurgence in participation, with a growing number of women choosing to sew their clothing instead of buying readily available fast fashion. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the current motivations of an ethnically diverse sample of women who sew garments for themselves. The in-depth interview data from 15 interviews revealed personal fulfillment to be the overarching reason for participation. Personal fulfillment was achieved through main emergent themes of investment, control, and empowerment with 10 subthemes. Theoretical perspectives of prosumerism, craft and do-it-yourself consumption, and uses and gratification theory were applied to the emergent themes to interpret the motivations of these women to sew garments for themselves. A model of sewing motivations for female garment sewing was developed to illustrate the connection between the emergent themes' contribution to the women's personal fulfillment and recurring cycle that takes place each time the women create a new garment for themselves. AbstractGarment sewing is undergoing a resurgence in participation, with a growing number of women choosing to sew their clothing instead of buying readily available fast fashion. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the current motivations of an ethnically diverse sample of women who sew garments for themselves. The in-depth interview data from 15 interviews revealed personal fulfillment to be the overarching reason for participation. Personal fulfillment was achieved through main emergent themes of investment, control, and empowerment with 10 subthemes. Theoretical perspectives of prosumerism, craft and do-it-yourself consumption, and uses and gratification theory were applied to the emergent themes to interpret the motivations of these women to sew garments for themselves. A model of sewing motivations for female garment sewing was developed to illustrate the connection between the emergent themes' contribution to the women's personal fulfillment and recurring cycle that takes place each time the women create a new garment for themselves.

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Garment sewing was once a necessity for women to present themselves and their families in a socially acceptable manner. Despite societal and economics changes, as well as, an abundance of readily available cheap clothing, there is a resurging interest in personal garment sewing by women. This qualitative study explored the control gained by women who sew their own clothing finding that among the women interviewed personal garment sewing allowed them control over their clothing’s style, fit, and quality, which was not found through purchasing ready-to-wear clothes. Garment sewing permitted these women to present themselves in clothing that they felt more accurately represented their personality and taste. These findings provide insights into the usage of garment sewing by women to control their appearance which allowed them more authority over their clothing selection than their non-sewing peers. Validation of the women’s time spent sewing was established as the findings postulate noteworthy benefits that include increased satisfaction with both their appearance and their presentation of self to others. The findings are explained using theories related to self-presentation and identity.

Significance and purpose.A resurgence is currently happening in home sewing participation that includes a growing interest in personal garment sewing among women (Haider, 2015). These women are choosing to spend their leisure time sewing garments for themselves instead of buying in the age of inexpensive, fast fashion. It is important to understand these women's perceived benefits of sewing, related behaviors, and use of leisure time, as they operate outside of typical consumer culture. The purpose of this study was to understand why women are choosing to sew clothing for themselves.Related literature and relevant theory. From 1960 to 1995, six studies were conducted on reasons women participate in home sewing (e.g. Christensen, 1995). These studies typically had homogeneous samples and considered all types of home sewing. The most current research on reasons individuals sew is over 20 years old (Christensen, 1995) and the most recent academic research on home sewers was limited to the investigation of women's dissatisfaction with the fit of commercial home sewing patterns (LaBat, Salusso, & Rhee, 2007). The theoretical perspectives of prosumerism (Ritzer, Dean, & Jurgenson, 2012), craft consumer (Campbell, 2005) and do-it-yourself consumption and uses and gratification theory (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974) were identified as possible explanations for the motivations of these women.Methods. An ethnically diverse sample of 15 female middle class sewers between 20 and 40 years old were recruited from the United States and Canada through Facebook sewing groups to participate in semi-structured video interviews. A grounded theory approach (Saldañ, 2016) was used to understand their experiences of sewing garments for themselves. Questions were designed to solicit information regarding why they choose to sew clothing for themselves, the benefits it provided them, their feelings attached to sewing, the reactions of others, amount of time spent sewing, and their sewing-related consumption. The transcribed interviews were independently coded by both the researchers. The agreement rate was 96.38%, which was above the threshold recommended by Saldañ (2016).Results. The research revealed a central theme of personal fulfillment. This personal fulfillment attained through sewing garments for themselves was not experienced in other aspects of their lives. It provided them a sense of accomplishment, a creative outlet, and source of stress release. Within the central theme of personal fulfillment, three sub-themes emerged: investment, control, and empowerment. All three of the emergent themes are interconnected and were experienced by all of the women in the study.