Browsing by Author "Alm, Mirva"

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract The purpose of this study is to find out the motives behind active sewing hobbyists in order to show the essentials of the sewing as consumption and as a hobby. The informants are members of a Facebook based online sewing community, Saumanvara. They were asked of the motivational factors involving their sewing hobby and also questions about their sewing history. There has been previous research on craft and motivation, but in this study the focus is within a sewing community. A social media based online community offers an interesting view on the subject. Presumably, participating the online community and being an active member is a meaningful part of the hobby. In this descriptive study sewing as a hobby was approached with the following question: Which were the motivational factors for hobbyist sewers in the Facebook sewing community? The quantitative data was collected by using a web survey in January 2016.The collected data (N = 352) was classified according to K.B. Madsen’s motivational theory into activity- orientated motivation, cognitive motivation and into social and emotional motivation. Activity-orientated motivation was the most important motivational factor. Sewing was viewed as meaningful use of leisure time. Also the joy of making things and chance for self -fulfillment were seen important. Sewing appeared as a pleasant hobby, as a good opportunity for learning new skills and a functional way for getting new clothes. Among motives classified as social and emotional the pleasure of self-made item, reverence of well-made clothes as well as sense of self-competence were seen important motivators for sewing hobby. Finally, I conclude that the most essential reasons maintaining sewing as a hobby are: the value produced by the product itself and joy as well as self-developmental benefit of sewing. My forthcoming master’s thesis offers a possible place for a strict analysis of the motivational background variables.