According to Sewing Hobbies as a Stress Reliever Training, “arts and crafts can enhance health and well-being.  Repetitive motions help the brain.  The British Journal of Occupational Therapy found that there is a significant relationship between knitting, which is a hand stitching skill, and “feeling happy.”  The effects of an art like hand embroidering is similar to meditation.  The Disabled Solder’s Embroidery Industry was a project during World War I and helped veterans in the following ways to assimilate and use embroidery skills to assist with “shell-shock” which in today’s terms is known as post-traumatic stress disorder.  The training also focused on other benefits of embroidery and hand stitching skills.  Embroidery skills can:

1. Offer a sense of accomplishment
2. Be a hobby for creative outlet and form of expression
3. Be a way to show appreciation
4. Produce goods for economic gain
5. Allow for hand/eye coordination and cognitive stimulation

Ronda Rex, Agent for Family & Consumer Sciences Education from the Campbell County Cooperative Extension Service, conducted a two-part series called Holiday Hand Stitching.  Eleven participants completed the two classes.  Each participant received a holiday embroidery kit and beginner supplies.  Participants learned basic embroidery stitches and the most useful tools and techniques to be successful at the art.  They also learned how to finish, wash, and frame their projects and focused on the mental wellness benefits of acquiring embroidery hand skills.  The eleven completed embroidery projects are worth $21.00 each for home decorating or holiday gift giving.  Eighty-two percent of the participants stated that the art of embroidery helped them relax, escape  some of the stressors in life and experience enjoyment.  

Ronda also taught Hand Stitching as a Hobby to beat the winter blues on Campbell Media Central public access TV which has a potential reach of 12,600 subscribers.   

Sewing Hobbies as a Stress Reliever Training, taught by Jeannie Badgett, Family & Consumer Sciences Extension Specialist for Clothing and Textiles and Angie York, County Agent for Family & Consumer Sciences Extension https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ju93fsrhk4 

https://fcs-hes.ca.uky.edu/files/managing-stress-during-hard-times.pdf 

Davidson, J.R., Threading the Needle:  when embroidery was used to treat “shell-shock.”