Do You Value Traditional Home Making Skills?

With Christmas just around the corner (it's now December, EEK) a lot of focus centers on crafts and other home making skills at this time of year. There seems to be a perception that a home made Christmas is somehow better than a shop bought one, but that's a discussion for another time. ;) 

I know  a lot of you are quite crafty and so am I, and Christmas is when I tend to really get involved. This year I hope to do some baking, make some decorations and maybe even get some Christmas cards made (how much I actually achieve is yet to be seen)! But a lot of people are now looking to incorporate traditional skills all year round, with sewing and baking among the most popular. 

A survey by Baytree Interiors  asked people about learning these sort of skills, as well as their preferences when it comes to how they style their home. Not only did the survey show that most respondents wanted to learn a traditional home making skill, it also shows that people now tend to style their home in a more traditional way; moving away from modern, minimalist design towards rustic, country style instead. 

One of the questions asked in the survey was, "Have you recently learnt or would you like to learn one of these traditional skills?" The most popular answer was baking for both men and women, which considering the popularlity of shows such as Great British Bake Off probably isn't that surprising. 21% of people wanted to learn to sew and alter their own clothes (something I'm very interested in) and 12% wanted to try home brewing (which is actually pretty simple).

There was a slight gender difference in the answers though, as while baking was the most popular with both men & women, the other choices were slightly more stereotypical, with men choosing activities such as wood working and brewing, whilst women favoured sewing and knitting. 

Another area the survey looked at was how people are learning these new skills, and 43% people said they'd learnt it online. For things such as sewing & knitting I completely understand that as youtube is the first place I go for tutorials on those, but I think woodworking would be easier to learn from another person stood next to you! 

So I'd love to know your thoughts on traditional home making skills like those mentioned.. are there any that you already know & use, or any that you're planning on learning? I already bake and sew, but I would love to be able to knit.. I keep trying and then giving up out of frustration! 

If you'd like to read more info on the survey you can read the full results here on craft-o-maniac.com

Remember to drop me a comment below, and tell me all about your crafty plans for Christmas!

​Stay safe, x