{"id":32801,"date":"2021-04-19T16:10:33","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T15:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldwire.co.uk\/?p=32801"},"modified":"2021-04-19T16:10:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T15:10:33","slug":"the-great-british-sewing-spree-how-the-pandemic-inspired-us-to-make-do-and-mend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/04\/19\/the-great-british-sewing-spree-how-the-pandemic-inspired-us-to-make-do-and-mend\/","title":{"rendered":"The great British sewing spree: How the pandemic inspired us to make do and mend"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a sunny lockdown Saturday in April 2020. With her employees on furlough, Pauline Crawley was alone at her sewing supplies shop in Attercliffe, Sheffield.<\/p>\n

Like many business owners, Pauline had been worried about shutting-up shop and the impact the pandemic might have on her finances. Though the shop was closed to walk-in customers, supplies were available to collect. From the moment she walked through the door, the phone was ringing off the hook. She glanced at her Apple Watch and saw, while rushing around the shop collecting orders, she had walked two and a half miles.<\/p>\n

As we stayed home to protect ourselves from the virus, the sewing-bug began to spread. Google trends show that from the 21st<\/sup> of March, searches for \u201csewing machine\u201d shot up by 75%. Was this craze purely a product of lockdown boredom, or was an already growing movement coming to its head?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still struggling to get hold of some models now,\u201d said Pauline, \u201cit started off last March, where people were wanting low-end sewing machines because they wanted to make scrubs for the NHS, but once the first lockdown was over, we had a lot of different customers coming in that had started learning to sew while they we stuck at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pauline Crawley’s Arts and Crafts Shop, Direct Knitting & Sewing Supplies, in Attercliffe.<\/p><\/div>\n

Just like banana-bread-baking or marathon running, people found themselves with time on their hands to try a new hobby.<\/p>\n

Enquiries also skyrocketed for Laura Faulkner, owner of Running with Scissors, a sewing and craft lounge in Sheffield\u2019s Haggler\u2019s Corner. However, for Laura, the lockdown seemed to fuel a movement that was already in progress.<\/p>\n

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Laura Faulkner, owner of Running with Scissors in Haggler’s Corner.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe opened in 2009, and at the time we were quite unique. Now there are quite a lot of competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been going 13-years now and have seen a rise in crafting and this has increased during lockdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always had a big range of customers, but over the last few years, we\u2019ve seen more young people booking onto our courses.\u201d<\/p>\n

This rise in popularity among younger people may be down to internet culture. A brief dive into sewing TikTok reveals a vibrant world from basic tutorials, to teens creating entire ball gowns from scratch. The hashtag \u201cThriftFlip\u201d which describes up-cycling items from charity shops, has over 1.3 billion views.<\/p>\n

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@nayelysruiz<\/a>my first thrift flip #sewing<\/a> #upcycling<\/a> #thriftflip<\/a>\u266c Dreams – shawty \ud83c\udf19<\/a><\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n