Creative Generative value

The article that I chose was posted on the Guardian on 23 September 2019 called “The calming effects of sewing can help people express and heal themselves (Hunter, 2019)”.

The author talks about how her childhood revolved around sewing. Being introduced to sewing by her mother, she enjoyed go to the cloth store, being surrounded by colourful pieces of cloth and different patterns (something that I relate it). While researching for her book, she found out the difference reasons why woman sewed back in the days. The first discovery was about how woman used sewing as a means to make time for themselves and make an identity for themselves during the 2nd world war in POWS camps. The second research lead her to Ruth First, a woman who used sewing as an act of rebellion. She sews lines as a way to count down her days in prison.

She later talks about the mental benefits of sewing. Sewing helps people to keep a calm attitude. It can be considered as a form of meditation because sewing puts one’s mind and body in a state of relaxation. It is an effective way to overcome depression. The feeling you get after having sewn helps to boost the immune system because the person feels accomplished. It can also be considered as a natural depressant. When a person enjoys doing something, one’s brain releases a chemical component named dopamine. According to a survey (Hooper et al., 2013), 81% people mentioned being happy while more than half was very happy after having done knitting. Knitting is an also a form of sewing which is mostly likely the reason why dopamine is release.

It is definitely true that sewing is calming but to an extent. If one does not have the correct visions, it can be unnerving to thread the tiny needle’s eye.

By experience, sometimes sewing is the last thing I would do to relax. As much as I enjoy sewing to recreate piece of clothing or accessories, I would do not find it that calming. Sewing requires taking measures, cutting patterns, cutting the correct piece of cloth, hand stitching to check if it fits and then sew the final piece. This requires time and I do not always have a whole day to dedicate to sewing. Also, if one does not have a sewing machine, the hand stitching takes eternity to finish. The worst of it all is cutting wrong pieces and not having enough fabric to complete the project. How can one say that it helps mentally if it requires this much time and effort to complete something?