Anyone else going to join me on the Sewing Bee watch?

[flubba]

A bit excited about it

:o

Last skirt I made was a complicated affair with bias binding.
Bugger knows what I was thinking.

On lightweight fabrics, where I actually want to add some weight to the hem to prevent unfortunate gust-of-wind incidents, I would fold the fabric twice and invisibly sew. On heavier fabrics where a double hem might be too bulky, I would trim the raw edge with bias binding and then turn up the hem.

I normally overlock the raw edge, then turn and sew.

I hate hand sewing though, and have been known to machine it eg if it's a summer dress for DD or something. Sometimes I hide the stitching with top stitched ribbon or similar :o

I don't think a machined hem is always shoddy but quite a lot of the ones on the programme looked awful. If you are making a feature out of a topstitched hem that's different.

I did once attempt a machine stitched narrow hem on a silk dress, that would have been shredded by the SB judges too. Just because you have a "rolled hem" attachment for your sewing machine, does not mean it will work or that it is a good idea!

I've got very into sewing blogs in the past year or two. this is a great one, and I also like this (check out the mentions of Tilly from the programme, as she also has a blog).

These are great places for finding out about non-mainstream patterns. Agree with the previous poster who mentioned Colette and Sewaholic. I have a Colette skirt cut out and waiting to sew, and need to boot myself into action to try a Sewaholic T-shirt, which is allegedly a doddle to make.

Aargh, too much to sew and too little time!

Brilliant link, nevergoogle! Not only does it show you how to pull an outfit together, I found my dream dress!

We had sewing classes at school and were taught to hand stitch hems using a little piece of cardboard with notches cut into it as a guide- you slid the notch along and it gave you the exact measurement of the turn up.

my home economics teacher did sewing with us. an apron and a pair of shorts.

she used to make me unstitch mine when i went ahead and did the next stage ahead of her instructions. even though it was correct and beautiful.

saying that, she also disapproved of my cheese on crackers technique as I didn't follow her instructions and decided to make it more interesting by making patterns with different colours of grated cheese. way to squish a girl's enthusiasm and creativity Mrs Read!

Mrs Read the home ec teacher from lockerbie academy, for example, was a shit of the highest order.

Phew, that was therapeutic.

good one effie, which dress was it?

Just a guess, but I take it nevergoogle, you didn't enjoy home economics??? Its amazing how a teacher can either enthuse or quash talent. At least she didn't put you off sewing for ever.
I must say, this thread does enthuse, motivate and interest me, much more than my domestic science teacher ever did!

It was Mccall 6555 but a little bit longer. Have ordered it.

Yes, our home economics teacher was a complete dragon too. She went to Australia for a year and the day she came back to school, she berated me and made me cry.
Miss Thompson, you were horrible and the gym pants we had to make were hideous.

I moved school not long afterwards and we had the loveliest h/e teacher. She let us put ric-rac on our aprons!

My first h/e teacher liked me - but was such a dragon to every one else, therefore I didn't like her! She would expect us to walk a mile home and back if we'd forgotten our 'one' issued needle- so you can guess what we did most weeks :)
She retired and was replaced by an inspirational teacher - we were allowed to make ANYTHING and she would aways help with any difficulties.

I was scared stiff of our cookery teacher, and needlework was ok as long as we were actually making things, but then they turned it into textile technology and we had to do stupid projects where we tested different kinds of fabric to see if they melted, ffs.

My mum was my textiles teacher at secondary school it might have given me a bit of an advantage as she would do loads of stuff at home with me too if I asked.

Dragonists :(

i actually enjoyed the subject just not the teaching, so it put me right off.

i liked quietly (or maybe not so quietly if i'm honest) getting on with it. her constant need to teach me not to say 'what?' and to say pardon instead kind of detracted from the point of the lesson. i never did say pardon out of principle.

i bet alexander mcqueen didn't say pardon.

just noticed the mccalls 6555 is supposed to be the pattern for two different dresses on the make this look website. can't be right.
are you making the halterneck dress or the one shown with the belt effie?

I had a teacher who used to make me say pardon instead of what too! Not home ec though.

My home ec teacher was awful too, pretty much universally hated. My older brother had her for some lessons too, and I have to admit I liked her a bit more after she punished one of the jokers in his class - she made him stand holding a piece of chalk between his nose and the blackboard :)

yes tunip we had bloody textile technology instead of actually making useful stuff. i had to make some stupid fabric sculpture instead of something i could actually wear

We never did any sewing when I was at school - we did metal work, woodwork and graphic design, but no sewing. Sad, really, though I loved them all.

My craft fairs are now out of the way for this month so I'm going to have a go at the a-line skirt this week. I'm sure my chicken poxed two year old will help :o

It is the one with the belt, nevergoogle.

Dunelm mill have started selling lovely cotton fabric and I bought a rose colour with tiny polka dots on. I will try it out in calico first to see how it looks.

any1 here crafty?

if so what do you make? x

i am a craft sewer rather than a dressmaker. i kind of specialise in soft sculpture, and sell what i make while also designing projects for craft magazines and books (my book!).

did enjoy the sewing bee prog, while kirsty allsopps attempts started out well, it very soon disappeared up it's own backside with crafts that were just too left field to appeal to the masses, bbc have got it right keeping it to sewing that is also useful as opposed to just decorative.