When Sarah Gustason had her children, she knew she had to use her children’s naptime effectively.
“If I cleaned the living room while they napped, in thirty seconds they would have it destroyed. But if I sewed two pieces of fabric together while they were napping, they were going to stay together for a very long time. So it was good mental health for me.”
And so her love of sewing and handicraft, instilled in her at a young age by her grandmother, reignited. Gustason now sews and crafts as her career, but that hasn’t stopped her from doing it in her free time.
“If it hadn’t been for the socialness of the sewing, I think I would have lost my mind. […] It was also someone to share the excitement of what you made, maybe you tackled something really difficult or just relating to, ‘I’m really trying to sew and I have three toddlers in my living room and it’s not going well.’”
Bob Stebbins, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Calgary, says the aspects that attract Gustason to sewing are the same drivers that lead people to hobbies as wide-ranging as woodwork, beekeeping, and mushroom hunting: a sense of community, a sense of creation, and a sense of meaning. He says the key difference between hobbies and simple relaxation is whether the endeavor can be done casually, with little effort or time. He gives television as an example.
“Television is not fulfilling typically. […] Hobbies are not casual. They require effort. We have to learn to do something and typically we have to continue with the hobby to keep up the skills we’ve acquired.”
On this hour of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks with Stebbins and Gustason about hobbies.
