Berlin - Callers to Linda Eilers Berlin cafe should expect to raise their voices to compete with the sewing machines in the background. Many of Eilers' customers opt to man a machine for 5 euros an hour (7 dollars), sewing handmade T-shirts they wear home after coffee.
"There's always more people coming," says Eilers.
But T-shirts are only part of a larger trend toward handicrafts that's picking up steam.
"Instead of being passive consumers, people in all sectors are simultaneously producing and consuming original products they make themselves," says Melani Rollwage of Trendbuero Hamburg, a business consultancy.
The trend has led to a resurgence of handicrafts. Long considered unhip, many of these crafts are now a hot trend among young city dwellers. People who spend the entire day at a computer find working with their hands both relaxing and pleasant.
Companies are pushing the trend as a means for people to "clear their heads with handicrafts."
But the trend would have never have taken off without the internet as it's impossible to avoid do-it-yourself websites nowadays. And they are not just for sewing and knitting fans. Thousands of websites allow people to swop recipes and cooking tips while on others keen gardeners discuss how to water plants or plant herbs. Other sites are devoted to helping people sell their work.
"The barriers for taking one's own initiative via the internet have been lowered," said Rollwage. Websites offering tips on knitting, sewing and other handicrafts make it easier to get started and promote both exchanges of opinions and sales. In many ways, the trend has escaped the niche market. Dubbed "homing," it has gone mainstream in some cases.
"Just about everyone makes things at home themselves if they can," says Frank Michel, director of the DIY Academy in Cologne. Rising fuel and rent costs mean people want to do more at home, boosting interest in making things themselves.
Homing, which covers all manner of handicraft in the home and garden, will probably grow in the next couple of years.
"People are proud of having made something themselves."
The do-it-yourself trend is all about individuality and self-realization which people crave when confronted with markets bursting with interchangeable products, says Rollwage.
"People want to get away from the digital and back to the more authentic."
Rollwage also says she sees the trend expanding in future.
"Handcrafting will continue to develop, especially thanks to the internet," she says. "This is where regular people can use weblogs to establish themselves as experts in new, ever more specialized topics."
