Sure!
Renaissance Faires.
Started out buying the clothing, etc.
Have since made my own set of Turk Garb and a set for my wife.
Had to purchase a sewing machine. Spent hours down in the garment district looking for fabric. Searching down patterns. Learning to sew.
The most tedious task/job was making maille hauberks for myself and several friends, one of which is a woman. Some 30,000 rings in each. All made from 14 gauge steel wire (16 gauge for the woman's hauberk) which is hand wound on a crank shaped steel rod mounted in an A frame. All the resulting coils must be hand cut with bull snips into rings. All the rings must be connected together into maille sheets which must then be formed into shirts.
Teaching myself to make the coif took a couple of weeks by itself.
You can buy maille hauburks and the like from catalogs for cheaper than I spent on materials.
I cant think of any more tedious job or hobby I have done than making that armor.
Strictly a labor of love because I sure wouldnt do it for a paycheck!
Many Faire participants start out buying all their garb but end up making their own. If I had a place to set up a forge I would try my hand at sword making. Still at the buy it stage of that aspect of Faire going.
ORIGINAL: Mike in DC
Can anybody think of a single hobby where tedious manual labor was replaced by factory-made goods but later on a significant number of participants went back to tedious manual labor? Think of all the things that people used to do themselves, but now pay someone else to do. Is sewing your own clothes coming back? Is cooking coming back? Is working on your car coming back? Is playing a musical instrument coming back?
I'm afraid not. We all live like kings now, and I don't see a king building his own models. The only thing that might change this equation is when (not if) Chinese labor costs the same as U.S. labor. When that happens, I think you'll see kits come back, and I don't know, but some families might be sewing their own clothes as well.