Browsing by Author "Virolainen, Hanna"

Most of the clothes we use today are ready-made garments. A few more generations ago, almost all the clothes were made by hand. Changing the importance of hand-made clothes at the social and everyday level has also influenced our appreciation for crafts. It is known that personal experiences have great significance in the formation of individual values. Our culture and our social environment also affect our values. In this qualitative study, the subject of the study was the appreciations of handmade children's clothing. My starting point for the research was my experience that handmade children's clothes are less appreciated than ready-made clothes. This study examines the views and appreciations of parents of children under school age in handmade children's clothing. The study examines also which handmade children's clothes are still used in families. The research material was collected with a semi-structured questionnaire containing both open and multiple choice questions. The questionnaire was distributed to one of the municipal nursery parents. Of the 45 questionnaires, 16 replies were received and the response rate was 35%. The research material was qualitatively analyzed using content analysis. According to research, parental appreciations for handmade children's clothing was varied. However, expressive, aesthetic, tradition and craftsmanship aspects were most appreciated in handmade children's clothing. The parents' positive experiences had an impact on their views on handmade clothing. The more positive the experiences of the parents were, the more appreciated were the aspects of craftsmanship, tradition and quality of work. If the parents' experiences of handmade clothing were relatively neutral, the aesthetic and expressive views were more pronounced in the valuations. Based on the responses, handmade garments currently used by families with children were mostly knitted woolen garments such as socks, hats, and vases. The most important feature of the clothes currently used by children is comfort. There was no clear link between the appreciation of parents' handmade garments and their handmade clothes for their children. In addition to parental valuations, other factors, such as the availability, price and availability of clothing, also affect decision-making related to the acquisition and introduction of garments.