Women's Motivations to Sew Clothing for Themselves

Abstract

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.

The Sustainability-Conscious Consumer: An Exploration of the Motivations, Values, Beliefs, and Norms Guiding Garment Life Extension Practices

“…For security and privacy of participants, all audio recordings, interview transcripts, and data analysis were stored in a secured data cloud accessible by the researchers only. The interview guide (Appendix A) contained a mix of 15 open-ended questions modified from previous research [45]. Participants were asked about their process for engaging in fashion GLEPs, related maintenance skill set and resources, individual usership characteristics, and overall engagement with communities who practice garment life extension.…”

The role of nostalgia in retro sewing

“…Valuing knowledge from the past is sometimes linked to feminism. Unlike the home sewers interviewed by Martindale (2017), several of these participants described themselves and their sewing as feminist. Expressing views common to third-wave feminists (Bain, 2016;Chansky, 2010;Stalp, 2015), some participants described their retro sewing as "subversive" because they use classic styles and traditional feminine pursuits (i.e., sewing) in a non-traditional way.…”

“…Sewing and DIY have always encapsulated feminist characteristics by allowing the participant to challenge social norms and define their own visual identity (Gordon, 2004;Hackney, 1999). Recent studies have identified sewing as having the same characteristics as third-wave feminism (Bain, 2016;Martindale, 2017). Retro style is also used as a form of empowerment; vintage enthusiasts and retro sewers have observed that their adoption of retro style leads to better treatment from men (Hirsch, 2010;Rogers, 2013).…”

Accumulating capital through social media: the transformative power of underrepresented fashion consumers

“…Individuals today are encouraged to choose their clothing from industry-dictated selections characterized by fashionable colors, styles, fits, fabrics and brand names (Guy et al, 2001). Research has shown that sewing evolved from an economic necessity to a creative outlet (Martindale, 2017). Frustrated at being underrepresented and underserved in the fashion industry, consumers use their cultural capitalfashion knowledge, craftsmanship, and sewing skillsfor self-presentation: I experienced many years of body shaming, so being able to wear my own creations provided me with the courage to stand up for myself.…”