BURLESQUE dancer Jessie Doherty is living proof that homemaking traditions such as knitting and sewing are no longer the pastime of little old ladies and housewives keeping a beady eye on the family finances.

"Most of my costumes are very simple," Doherty says. "I've finished my outfit for [my show] Maitrisse, which was based on Madame de Pompadour. She had a wee cape. Now I'm working on a feather headdress, a bustle and underwear for [another show] Flamboyance."

The 21-year-old from Glasgow's West End, whose stage name is Kim Khaos, has been making her own clothes since she was 15, as well as her stage outfits since she began performing last year.

She is part of a new generation of craft makers whose spending power has been recognised at one of Europe's biggest craft fairs in Glasgow this weekend. More than 22,000 are expected to visit the SECC for the huge Hobby Crafts exhibition.

It is estimated that they will spend some £1.76million on craft paraphernalia including knitting yarn, sewing needles, buttons, cards, beads, stencils, mesh and silicone glue. Knitting, sewing and embroidery are big business in Scotland.

Due in large part to popular TV programmes, such as the Great British Sewing Bee and Kirstie's Homemade Home, crafts have undergone a cultural shift.

Some of this rebirth is down to the effects of tough economic times. We live in something of a make-do and mend world because of squeezed pay packets and rising costs.

However, the return to traditional homemaking is also raising eyebrows among today's new feminists, many of whom are questioning if it is empowering or just a step back for women.

The demand for crafting has grown to such an extent that classes have sprung up across the country.

Dancer Doherty's mum, Annie, runs a sewing class on the first two Mondays of the month at the Rio Cafe, in Partick, Glasgow's West End.

The 47-year-old - who designed a dress from a bed throw for a guest of the Queen's garden party two years ago - argues that the movement is empowering to both women and men. She says: "It is a very positive thing - that women have the power to learn skills is more power to their elbows.

"People come to the class for different reasons, they may want to learn how to make clothes or it might be to meet people.

"After you've made one thing, you maybe knit a scarf or a hat, you're hooked."

Jessie adds: "It is almost a unisex thing now, it's not just for women. I don't think it is a particular feminine thing to do these days, everyone does it.

"It's about the satisfaction of saying: 'Yeah, I made that.'"

Although many of the people at the SECC craft show fit the presupposed demographic - women over the age of 50 - in the packed aisles there are plenty of younger faces, and a few men too.

This is not totally surprising to some people. British Sugarcraft Guild member Margaret Houston - who creates items out of sugar - puts the resurgence of a "make do and mending" culture down to the recession.

"It's getting more and more popular because things are getting so expensive to buy," says the 67-year-old from Ayr, while carefully forming the body of a Scottie dog out of sugar.

"If people are out of a job they think: 'Let's do a hobby to keep busy and make money,' and that's where the crafts come in.

"I think a lot has to do with the television shows, too. I know we've got a lot more younger people - and men - who come along to our Ayrshire branch."

Another exhibitor at the SECC, Marie Welsh, who owns the craft company Sew Materialistic, agrees and feels the appeal of having something individually made is also strong.

The 42-year-old from Ayr says: "I think a lot of people are looking for something to do in their spare time that's not going to cost them too much money.

"You can buy a lot of fabric and reuse things you've got in the house to create your own personal items as opposed to just buying something from the high street.

"With sewing, you can create something individual and more personal to you and it doesn't need to cost you so much money."

Through running children's clubs at her shop in Ayr, Welsh found that there exists "a generation that hasn't sewn at all".

She says: "Why there's a generation that's missed it, I'm really not sure. There are young people who have seen Kirstie Allsopp on television and they come along with their mums to learn to sew together. In the 70s and 80s things were different - people bought things instead of making things."

Several families are trawling around the SECC too.

Sandra Lawrie, 47, from Lochwinnoch, is trying out different crafts with her daughter Isla, 13.

She says: "This is a day out for us. Isla loves baking but we'll try anything once to see what it's like. I do a lot of jewellery making."

Kelly McLeman, 38, her sister Gemma McPhail, 30, and their mum Eileen Reid, 62, travelled from Aberdeenshire to Glasgow to stock up on products.

They've been going to craft fairs for more than five years, but say they are more popular than ever today.

McLeman says: "There's probably a bit more interest in it because of TV but for us it was just about sparkly things.

"I made my own tiara for my wedding. You can pick up the idea down here and then you make it at home."

McPhail adds: "We enjoy seeing what we can make with things. It used to be cards but that takes up an awful lot of space. Now it's beads because it looks more compact.

"I've done jewellery making for a good five-to-10 years. Our mum knits too."

Lesley Plenderleith, 37, a history teacher from Lanark, is browsing stalls at the fair.

She says the renewed interested in crafting is down to society trying to recreate happier economic times.

"Historically there's been a trend of people reverting back to times of happiness when things are hard," she says.

"People return to the late 1940s and 1950s to try and recreate that time.

"I notice that a lot of my pupils are now really enthusiastic about baking and making things and I'd never seen that before. That used to be seen as uncool."

Glasgow-based feminist Mhairi McGowan, who is head of domestic abuse advocacy service Assist, says there has been a shift in the way crafts are viewed by society.

"It is a very bizarre thing to watch," she says. "When I was young, women wouldn't want to go near things like knitting or sewing.

"It was seen very much as part of the old order that we were trying to distance ourselves from. But women's lives have changed now. The difference between the 1950s and now is incredible.

"Women are juggling a full-time job and childcare. There's no longer the need to darn socks - you can just a buy a pack of five from Primark.

"Now crafts can be done for relaxation and to be creative. We are allowed to enjoy them now."

McGowan says the thirst for consuming craft-related TV programmes shows how far the change have come.

"When you look at these programmes, there are men involved as well as women," she says. "My friends bake, one of them went to a sewing class, and I even make my own bread.

"I remember in the 1980s, people were saying that it was no longer economically viable to knit clothes, it was cheaper to buy them.

"So the shift in labour and technology has meant that women can enjoy doing these things again where as in the past they had no choice but to do them."

Back at the Hobby Crafts fair, one of the organisers Simon Burns of ICHF Events, is discussing how the fair has grown by almost 40% in three years. In 2011 there were 16,000 visitors.

He says: "We expect to keep growing. Everyone wants to do some kind of crafts, whether it's knitting, patchwork quilts, home furnishing or working with paper."

Burlesque dancer Jessie Doherty says: "The possibilities are endless. It's very easy to get the bug."