Is this housework?

C

claudiaramus

New member
Sewing is my one great hobby. It also entails embroidery and quilting. I mostly sew for others especially my 3 y/o son, so (since this year) almost all his clothes are self-made. Of course I'm also the one to care for household items, like sewing table cloth, curtains, bike covers, etc and a lot of
birthday and Christmas presents for my and my husband's family are sewn/made by me. Recently, my son wished for a pink dinosaur costume for Halloween, so I'm sewing that right now.

Would you categorize sewing as house work? I do it for fun and 90% of it in my fun time and also pay for fabric and zippers, etc with my fun money. I just wondered how other sewer/seamstresses handle their hobby when it's a real asset to their family, e.g. helps financially.
 
@claudiaramus That sounds amazing. But no, I wouldn't classify it as housework. I would classify it as a hobby. I'm not sure how it is where you are, but where I am finished clothes are cheaper than fabric and used clothing packs (garbage bags full of used clothes) are cheaper again.

It does sound awesome though.
 
@ambasea Thank you :)

Yeah, I think you're right. Regarding clothes, sewing vs. buying breaks even. Since the pandemic started, there are no flea markets here so getting cheap second hand clothes is hard. The higher quality/brand second hand clothes are sold in second hand stores here and cost about the same or maybe a bit less than sewn clothes. I do buy almost all of my fabric in sales and upcycle a lot of old adult clothes to toddler clothes though :) And fast fashions clothes are of course cheaper but ethically against my family's believes (same with fabric tho, I only buy the bio eco cotton - on sale 😅)

For presents, I think it safes a lot of money if we were to gift the same things bought. Quilts are ridiculously expensive because of the sheer amount of time that goes into them. But if I didn't want to sew them, we'd just gift something less expensive.

Thank you now I appreciate my hobby more 🥰
 
@ambasea I agree. I wouldn't classify as housework because we dont really need to mend clothes anymore and I can find free costumes on my local neighborhood app. But it is a very valuable hobby and a skill and I wish I had your skills.

I feel like housework is more things that need to be done for a functioning house like washing dishes, laundry, paying bills, grocery shopping, making food. You dont really NEED a pink dinosaur costume but its freaking awesome that you can make one. But if you want to categorize it as housework you can. Its just in my opinion and in MY house I wouldn't.
 
@claudiaramus I'm also a quilters and working on Christmas gifts at the moment. It's definitely a hobby for me and with the cost of materials, buying gift would probably cost just as much 😅
 
@katrina2017 Oh, I had the feeling that making quilts myself is way cheaper than buying quilts of the same size/intricacy. E.g. my sister wished for a wedding quilt as her wedding present from me and similar quilts online cost easily twice or three times as much as the material cost for the self-made quilt. And baby quilts often cost next to nothing because I make them out of scraps from other projects ;)
 
@katrina2017 I often use old bedsheets for the backing and sometimes took old fleece blankets as the batting.

But the wedding quilt was all new materials for 180€ for a 2m X 2m quilt. I thought that was pretty cheap 🤔
 
@claudiaramus I do the same for my backing a lot of the time, but I've never tried to use anything other than store bought batting. That's clever and I'll have to try it! I've never spent $250 on quilting materials before. I got my sewing machine second hand for $50 and it's older than I am 😅
 
@claudiaramus I knit and crochet as a hobby, but if one of my sons needs a new winter hat or something I would count the yarn for that as coming out of their clothing budget of the general household expenses. Buying extra nice yarn for a fun project or a gift would fall under hobby.

I wouldn’t call sewing clothes for your family hobby work since for decades it was part of household tasks. As was weaving, rug making, knitting, etc. Those are all skills that have become hobbies, but as long as your family is in need of those things I wouldn’t call them extraneous to housework. It’s a really valuable skill to know how to make those things yourself. That doesn’t mean that if someone else doesn’t make their own clothes they’re shirking their housework duties or something, but I think your definition is valid for your situation. If you want to count it as housework you should go right ahead!
 
@roshselva I think you make some good points. We can outsource childcare, so does the fact that we choose not to make that work a hobby? We can outsource cleaning to others but I never hear anyone call cleaning a hobby. If someone is sewing just for fun, then the time spent could certainly be called hobby time, but I don’t repair my husband’s pants, make costumes, or hem our curtains for fun. Those are all things that save us money and help beautify our home.
 
@cfa I love cleaning and I would say some cleaning things I do is a hobby. Like I love to detail the cars and I buy gadgets to do that. I also bought a steamer and its been so fun. I will detail the oven! And I like to wash windows. Those things don't need to be done but laundry, dishes, sweeping, cooking needs to be done to keep everyone alive and up to living standards.

As for childcare I wouldn't call that housework. I have a moral and legal obligation to care for my child and I chose to have a child. I enjoy caring for her but I wouldn't call childcare housework.

But you can define housework however you like. People add value to relationships and to the household in different ways. Sewing adds value to your household with homemade costumes or maybe you hem everyone's pants.

And value doesn't have to be quantified. Like your sewing skills are worth $50 and hour and childcare in our area pays $25 an hour and a housekeeper would be $100 a week so I add this much value to the house... NO! Thats not how it works in a household. People pitch in where they can and we all help eachother out when we can because we're family. We dont have to quantify that in any way.
 
@claudiaramus It’s housework. We save a lot of money on clothes because I repair the clothing we already own. It can still be enjoyable and count as work.
 
@florence59 Another commenter said it might be house-making which is a great term I think.

Just curious, would you say buying necessary clothes and mending clothes is house work? I'd say providing clothes is house work but the extra step to sew them in a cute design or embroider them is sweet but not necessary, so no house work. It's just semantics but I was curious :)
 
@claudiaramus I count it as fun money, except for projects like Halloween costumes or things for extended family.

Also, my 3.5yo wanted to be a pink dinosaur this year too!! Just finished with tail and spikes 😃
 
@claudiaramus I just want to chime in that I miss and love sewing! I have zero energy for it except to sleep or rest when I'm not chasing my 21 month old around. I'm 23+4 with twins and expect it'll be at least another year before I get back into the groove of sewing regularly. It is very much one if my all time favorite hobbies and I agree with a previous poster that it falls into the homemaking category.
 
@claudiaramus Would you consider shopping for your child’s clothes a hobby? Picking out and purchasing costumes? Buying gifts for family members?

These things are part of the unseen backbone of running a household. Even knowing that clothes/costumes/gifts are needed is a mental exercise. These things do not spontaneously happen out of nowhere and are not part of your “me time”. If you enjoy sewing and can break even on costs and time spent acquiring these things, you just get icing on your cake.

A friend of mine loves doing dishes. Is it not housework because it is enjoyable? Is it a hobby instead? Absolutely not.
 
@katrina2017 Thank you for your input :) really your first and last paragraph tie together my thoughts because I genuinely enjoy doing the things you listed above but they're still necessary things to be done.
Now, I think it's legitimate to ask my husband to watch our son after work because I need to mend ripped pants or finish the much needed new winter hat or dinosaur costume.

But as you said all those little unseen things run deep. I like organising my son's clothes and now sewing, mending and tailoring them and I like organising gifts especially if I can make them myself but I know if I wouldn't take care of those things, they just wouldn't get done.
 
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