Abstract
Women’s mental well-being is deeply intertwined with their bodily experiences across different life stages. While embroidery has long been associated with domestic femininity, little is known about how its embodied qualities can support women’s mental well-being. This paper presents a co-creation workshop titled Embodied Embroidery, followed by micro-phenomenological and semi-structured interviews. Eight female participants engaged with embroidery to reconnect with their bodies and translate embodied sensations into material expressions. The findings reveal how embodied making can nurture different dimensions of women’s mental well-being while opening up new design spaces for embroidery activities among women across diverse age groups and cultural backgrounds. This paper contributes to design research by introducing an embodied, craft-based method for engaging with women’s well-being and by articulating design implications for integrating embroidery as a reflective and restorative practice.
Keywords
soma design; women’s well-being; micro-phenomenological interview; embodied embroidery
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1910
Citation
Sun, X., Claisse, C., and Wang, Q. (2026) Reclaiming Embroidery: Uncovering the Potential of Embodied Practice for Women’s Mental Well-being, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1910
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Reclaiming Embroidery: Uncovering the Potential of Embodied Practice for Women’s Mental Well-being
Women’s mental well-being is deeply intertwined with their bodily experiences across different life stages. While embroidery has long been associated with domestic femininity, little is known about how its embodied qualities can support women’s mental well-being. This paper presents a co-creation workshop titled Embodied Embroidery, followed by micro-phenomenological and semi-structured interviews. Eight female participants engaged with embroidery to reconnect with their bodies and translate embodied sensations into material expressions. The findings reveal how embodied making can nurture different dimensions of women’s mental well-being while opening up new design spaces for embroidery activities among women across diverse age groups and cultural backgrounds. This paper contributes to design research by introducing an embodied, craft-based method for engaging with women’s well-being and by articulating design implications for integrating embroidery as a reflective and restorative practice.