Warmer Find and circle the words and phrases in the article. Then answer the questions

Priya Elan
4 February, 2021
‘Sew bros’ is the name for men who are taking 
up sewing. George Clooney is a sew bro.
Clooney has three-year-old twins. He says, 
“I sew the kids’ clothes … and I mended my 
wife’s dress a couple of times. I was a bachelor 
for a long time and didn’t have any money, and 
you have to learn how to mend things.”
During the pandemic, people have become 
more interested in domestic hobbies, including 
making jam and hairdressing. Shops have sold 
lots of sewing machines during this time.
“A lot of young male sewers are joining our 
community,” says Edward Griffith, from the 
craft community LoveCrafts. “Most of them are 
25 to 34 years old. The women in the group 
are mostly 35- to 44-year-olds.” Griffith says, 
“About a third of the men took up sewing during 
the pandemic and lockdown.”
People post photographs on social media 
of clothes that they mend or make. But people 
are surprised when ‘Sew Bros’ talk about 
their hobby.
“When I tell people I sew, they sometimes 
laugh because they think I’m joking,” says 
Thabo Sabao, 22. He works with computers 
and he posts photos of the clothes he makes 
on Instagram.
“The sewing community can be strange 
towards men. People respect tailors, but they 
think men who sew at home are feminine,” 
Peter Cant says.
But the sew bros continue to join the craft 
world. Sabao says that he was “looking for 
something to take me away from my computer 
screen,” and then he found a sewing machine. 
But he went back online for help. “Nearly 
everything I know came from YouTube,” 
he says.
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“Many men contact me through Instagram,” 
says Cant. “They want to mend and reuse 
clothing,” like Clooney, “and also make their 
own clothes.”
But still, “the online sewing community is mostly 
women,” Sabao says. “I don’t think most men 
think about sewing. When we are growing up, 
mothers and grandmother usually just teach 
girls to sew.”
Sabao says, “A lot of my family in Zimbabwe 
are tailors and seamstresses, but I didn’t know 
that before. My mum is happy that I started 
to sew.”
© Guardian News and Media 2021 
First published in The Guardian, 04/02/2021
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