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Sewing Bee 2024

158 replies

ThreeWordHarpy · 20/05/2024 14:36

I expect there will be a thread in the crafts forum, but only posting this here because my usual sewing social media channels have gone a bit bananas because one of the contestants is a DEI director, has they/them pronouns and a drag persona/alter ego. https://www.williamgee.co.uk/the-great-british-sewing-bee-2024-air-date-and-contestants/

Aside from the central casting cliche, (the usual Love Productions approach) I wish the contestant luck and I look forward to seeing what they can do in the sewing room My main point that any discussion on the program itself is going to be impossible until and unless that contestant is eliminated. Interestingly, it seems that people are a lot less “be kind” than they were for Matthew last year. Or maybe the moderators of the FB groups I’m on haven’t yet swing into action with the ban hammer…

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Original poster
ThreeWordHarpy · 20/05/2024 17:02

These programs are not really sewing, pottery or baking competitions; they are TV shows structured around sewing etc. The contestants are chosen for TV appeal and are definitely not because they are the best sewers applying to the show

Sadly I think you’re right in how they evolved. The first series of Sewing Bee was very different with the winner being an older lady who was an excellent tailoress, but the makeover challenges were alterations that reflected real life scenarios rather than “make an outfit from a deckchair”. She’d have struggled in later seasons with that round.

It’s all about the “journey” now isn’t it. I used to really enjoy Who Do You Think You Are? back in the earlier series it gave more information about how the researchers found the information and showed the celebs logging onto Ancestry a bit more - although clearly staged it at least acknowledged how some of the information was derived. The focus on actual genealogy has faded considerably recently.

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quantumbutterfly · 20/05/2024 16:25

I think there are skills that were once commonplace and have now been lost. I enjoy watching skilled people using their skills.

I will see which boxes have been ticked in casting when I watch it.

Sloejelly · 20/05/2024 16:20

People into cosplay is the other group who pop up

BrownTableMat · 20/05/2024 16:17

Meh. I can’t get that excited about it. Nearly everyone I know who sews is either an elderly woman, OR in the LGBT/queer/alternative subculture. It’s hardly news that a lot of people who’re into fashion are also gay or alternative - the programme probably hits about the right balance here.

Sloejelly · 20/05/2024 16:11

I remember one year the final make was a ball dress type outfit. One made a dress for their male friend and got marked down because it didn’t need to be made to take account of the much curvier (and therefore more complex) female shape.

These programs are not really sewing, pottery or baking competitions; they are TV shows structured around sewing etc. The contestants are chosen for TV appeal and are definitely not because they are the best sewers applying to the show.

Original poster
ThreeWordHarpy · 20/05/2024 16:02

Interestingly I went back to FB to see if I could quantify any way the change in reactions between this years contestant and Matthew last year but I can’t find the post so I think it’s gone already.

i compare it to Pottery Throwdown. Having dabbled at the very edge of pottery, you really need to be able to afford the equipment, the space to put it and the electricity bill for the kiln, to do it at all seriously. It seems everyone is just a little bit eccentric in a naice middle class way, and Throwdown seems representative of the pottery community with everyone accepting of everyone else. I see very few if any negative comments on Rose the kiln technician and AJ who won it a couple of years ago.

Whereas if you go to any of the big sewing fairs, the overwhelming majority of attendees are women aged 45-75. If that’s representative of the sewing community I can’t see any production company making a sewing programme with 10 middle aged women, one textiles student, and one long suffering husband there to carry the bags home. Grin. So I fully support the idea of showing that sewing can be for everyone, I just wish Love Productions didn’t appear to have a casting list with established “types” that appear every year. The young mum making clothes for her kids, the no nonsense northern granny making clothes for her grandkids, the young inexperienced sewer who is brilliant at design, the methodical older gentleman, the wacky younger man with an “innovative” approach to fabrics and design, the man making clothes for drag performers. At least I can’t spot a surgeon/doctor amongst the occupations as they would be the favourite to win from the off based on previous series.

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Tallisker · 20/05/2024 15:51

The Beeb always have to shoehorn drag into everything these days. Hope the sewer is just a person who sews and not his alter ego all the time.

quantumbutterfly · 20/05/2024 14:55

Luke looks like Patrick's long lost twin.
Ta for the heads up, love a bit of sewing bee.