Browsing by Author "Alanko, Riikka"

The purpose was to study handmade underwear and their making in 2010's Finland. The study examined features of handmade underwear, which include the range of underwear types, the structure of underwear and the aesthetic style of underwear. The study also aimed to understand craft enthusiasts motivations for making underwear, both relating to underclothes themselves and to general values and attitudes. The theoretical viewpoints examined in the study were processes and meanings of making crafts, DIY-culture as well as styles, history and meanings of underwear. The research strategy was qualitative case study and it was based on data triangulation. Both the features of handmade underwear and the motivations for their making were examined with photographs and texts published in the Internet as well as qualitative questionnaire responses. The visual and textual data was collected from two sewing-related Facebook-groups and individual blogs and the data consisted of 65 photographs and 122 files that included text or both photographs and text. The questionnaire responses were collected using online questionnaire and the final data included 51 responses. The data was analyzed by using content analysis with theoretical approach and Atlas.ti 7.5.10 was used as a software tool in the analysis. Making underwear by hand could be seen as a small phenomenon among craft enthusiasts on the Internet. Underwear types examined in the study were bras and underpants for women, men and children. The structures and materials of the handmade underwear were mainly similar to industrially made ones. However there was more diversity in the aesthetic styles of the handmade underwear. The most frequent aesthetic styles were colorfulness, use of different types of printed fabrics, use of recycled and leftover materials as well as playful, joyful and humoristic expressive style. The most important motivations for making underwear were related to the clothes themselves, the most common reason being need for fit and comfort. Furthermore quality of the product and need for individual look were motivations that relate to the product. Motivations that relate to values and attitudes were economic benefit, ecological and ethical reasons, fulfilling craft enthusiasts lifestyle and aiming at self-sufficiency. The economic and ecological values were seen in utilization of leftover materials, which was a common motivation for making underwear. According to this study the making of handmade underwear appears to have influences of DIY-craft, which includes aspects of individuality, consumption and taking responsibility of one's own needs.