86 A recent survey of over 45,000 people by Statista found that DIY arts and crafts were the hobbies of choice for over 26 per cent of respondents. This should come as no surprise when you consider how hands-on crafting can be; a feast for the senses compared to the sterile and flat digital world we live in now. Instead, crafting is a hands-on experience. You get to feel the texture and flow of beautiful fabrics in your hands and run the exquisite printed designs between your fingers before choosing what is going to be part of your next crafting project. If you’re making a dress you can also choose from a range of dressmaking patterns. It can sometimes be hard knowing where to start, and shops like Liberty offer a wide variety of fabric choices which can be overwhelming. With a hobby that can be both rewarding, relaxing, and really let you stretch your creativity, it’s no wonder crafting has become so popular! The Liberty Team undertook a research project to explore different crafting hobbies throughout the UK, including what people are searching for, what they craft, and how they buy their supplies. We wanted to see exactly how crafty each UK city is. Discover our detailed results below; we were surprised by some of the data we found - maybe you will be too What we found The Covid-19 pandemic left us all with a lot of time on our hands, and it’s no surprise that many hobbies became more popular almost overnight. Broad Google Trends data for ‘sewing’ saw a big spike in April 2020 as lockdown began and we all had more time on our hands. A longer-term trend we saw was the increasing popularity of crochet. In 2022, crochet overtook knitting in popularity for the first time. We saw a similar trend in the USA, but there, crocheting has been taking the lead since 2010. As you’d expect, search interest for both types of crafts was highly seasonal with interest peaking moreso in the colder months. For our more detailed investigation, we examined 76 different data points for the top 88 cities in the UK. This included search data, local crafting resources, and social media interest. After laying it Carry on crafting A study conducted by Liberty Fabrics experts, aimed to uncover the finest destinations across the UK for arts and crafts, while providing a valuable guide for craft lovers to choose their next stop on their creative journey. Here’s what the team reported back...
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