So two weeks in and who else is loving this year’s GreatBritish Sewing Bee?!
**Spoiler alert – do not read further if you intend to but
have not yet watched the new series**
I watched the first series on the off chance and really
enjoyed it, so I looked forward to the second series last year, and got more
involved in the conversation by reading the contestants’ blogs and following on
Twitter. So you can imagine how excited I was when the trailers started
appearing on BBC for this year’s series!
I love this year’s bunch of sewers, it’s great to see a few
more men in the group, and they’ve certainly shown their talent over the last
couple of weeks. If you’re interested to find out more about them Alex,
Deborah, Neela, Amanda, Ryan, Matt, Neil and Paul are all on Twitter (Lorna and
Annie sadly aren’t) and most have their own blogs too.
The week 1 challenges were based around using cotton, with
slim trousers as the following-a-pattern challenge, a denim shirt as the
starting point for the alteration challenge, and finally a made-to-measure
cotton summer dress in a printed fabric.
The trouser challenge sounded like a fairly basic start, but
with slim legs, an invisible side zip and bias binding on the waistband there
were plenty of techniques to master. Several of the sewers struggled with
having to work under time pressure, where I’m sure most of us would rather take
our time over a pattern we’ve not made before. Most turned out pretty well with
a few wonky seams, partially exposed zips and stretched out waists, but
certainly much better than I’d have done! Apparently this pattern is included in the new book so I might give them a go at some point.
The alteration challenges are always fun, seeing how each
person envisions something creative and goes about making it. There were a lot
of denim skirts made out of the shirts, but Paul and Ryan made dresses, Annie
made a woman’s blouse, and Lorna a child’s skirt. I really liked Matt’s fitted
shape with the fun cotton frill round the hem.
The made-to-measure challenge gives the sewers the chance to
show off something they’ve been able to practise, but with the added pressure
of fitting it perfectly for their model, and all within the time limit. There
were some absolutely gorgeous fabric choices – Deborah’s was glorious with bold
colours (it’s an Alexander Henry print called La Paloma if you’re interested),
and Paul and Lorna both chose poppies. The patterns they all used were lovely
too, working for a variety of body shapes – and poor Ryan really went all out
having to gather 2m of fabric into the waist of his dress! Neil won this
challenge with his waist-cut-out fitted dress with perfectly matched polka dots
– he’s definitely one to watch.
Sadly Annie was the first sewer to leave – May and Patrick thought
the fitting of her dress wasn’t great, and she’d struggled with the alteration
challenge. There were a couple of other people it could have been, but someone
has to go first.
Week 2 was children’s week with a boy’s waistcoat, cotton
dress + jersey t-shirt combo for the alteration, and made to measure 3D fancy
dress costumes. I’ve not made any children’s clothes before but can see the
logic of both schools of thought: smaller means less fabric to get tangled up
with vs. Smaller means more fiddly and obvious if it’s not perfect.
We saw both of these extremes with the waistcoats. Poor
Neela got in a real muddle with her welt pockets (not that I have a clue having
never tried one before!) and several of the sewers not completing all the
buttons and buttonholes. Again there were some great fabric choices to combine
the wool fronts with silk linings – Ryan’s tartan and paisley combo
particularly caught my eye.
For the alteration challenge this week the contestants were
asked to make something combining the stretchy jersey of a t-shirt with the
less flexible woven of a cotton dress. Lorna made a beautiful little dress with
frilled sleeves and a bow at the neck, Deborah made a little bolero/shrug with
a ruffled collar and front edge that May liked, but Neil won again with his
boxing shorts and boxing gloves which Patrick thought were genius – or even
‘Knockout!’ as he punned!
The best challenge this week though was the made-to-measure
with the brief to make a child’s fancy dress costume incorporating 3D elements.
Wow! The sewers really stepped up to the mark with this one with a veritable
zoo appearing in the sewing room. Deborah and Matt went head to head with
peacocks with stand up tails, Ryan a fox hooded coat with ears and tail, Neil
a mobile phone, Lorna’s blue-footed booby was brilliant, but the real star of
the show was Paul’s elephant with flapping ears, a trunk tie, and pink tutu
(obviously!). This won garment of the week, deservedly so, and it was lovely
that everyone else was so pleased for him.
Unfortunately this was not Alex’s
week, she didn’t manage to finish her cupcake dress, and she’d struggled with
her waistcoat, so sadly it was her turn to go. I really like Alex, I think her approach to sewing is great, but she's definitely a precise, perfectionist sewer so working under time pressure clearly didn't suit her. Reading her blog though shows that she's definitely capable of making some absolutely gorgeous clothes!
There we have it, two weeks and two sewers down, and next week is 1950s week! Vintage sewing machines and patterns, I can't wait to see what they come up with!
In the real world, no sewing this week, been doing some knitting in the evenings but I'm working up to preparing a pattern and fabric to make a dress, I'll keep you posted!
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