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

[flubba]

A bit excited about it

:o

Have finally managed to watch the final on i-player. I avoided this thread as I didn't want to know who won, but when I was in "Threads I'm watching" I saw the first few words of someone's post, so I accidentally found out.

Whilst Lauren was my favourite all along, I thought Ann definitely deserved to win. Her shirt was fantastic, just so crisp and clean and neat. The style of her dress wasn't my sort of thing, but can't deny it was beautifully made. This confirms to me that it pays to put in the time and effort to prepare meticulously. I will try my best to remember this when I'm excited to get on with a project!

That is, assuming that one day, I will have the time and energy to make something myself.

lauren could have won had nerves not got the better of her in the final, she fluffed 2 of the projects, was clear after that ann was going to win.

am a little concerned about the home sewer accolade as some of the entrants were most definitely taking part as exposure for their sewing businesses, are they home sewers or professionals?. although i'm not sure the exposure will totally have the desired effect, eg i don't tend to sew clothing, am more a craft sewer so would not be in the market for one of tilly's patterns, but if i was, i'm afraid i would be a little worried regarding her pattern drafting skills i also see some are going on to teach sewing classes. there are some (ann!) i would pay to be taught by, and others i just wouldn't.

I think I'd be happy to be taught by many of them in their specialist area -- e.g. Stuart seemed to havedone a lot of quilting / home furnishings before the show and I wouldn't mind a class on that from him (whereas Ann made her first ever quilt after the program had ended). If it were "inserting a zipper fly" I'd probably go to Ann.

I think Lauren simply didn't have the experience - time will sort that one out!

Interesting that to apply for next year's series you "cannot have ever worked full-time as a dressmaker, sample machinist, pattern cutter, tailor or seamstress" [emphasis added] -- seems they are tightening that up.

I agree nipers ~ it would have been nice to see a mix of sewing skills in there, rather than all clothes-making/altering. I would consider myself a "home sewer" I supposed, because although I've made a couple of basic clothes for the kids, I don't make clothes, but I do do a lot of sewing

I wonder if this series was a short one, to gauge interest, and maybe the next one will be longer. Iirc, that's what happened with the Great British Bake Off. If so, maybe they'll have more time do do more than just making/altering clothes in the next series - I hope so!

good, I'm glad they've done that.
anyone who has worked full-time in that industry would be good at that kind of thing.

But! It also means that I can't apply. I only worked as a pattern cutter for 2 months, on a probation, and quite frankly didn't get to do much pattern cutting during that time, but I was full-time, so I couldn't do it.

i think the bbc have surprised themselves as to how popular the sewing bee has been. it'll be knitting next

am hoping the programme will help undo the damage kirsty allsopp's efforts have done. her programmes began with the best of intentions but quickly disappeared up it's own arse! i mean, candle making fgs, was featured in every series but is hardly going to appeal to the masses.

You must not have any sewing NVQ or other qualifications unless acquired over 10 years ago. - which is an arse, because I got my HND in Fashion Technology 11 years ago!

I suspect that's the case, SDTG. I've really looked forward to watching it each week, so I'd love to see a longer series.

I have to admit I quite liked the fact that it was clothing-orientated, but am sure it would still be good if they introduced other item

I had a go at candlemaking after I watched Kirsty doing it, nipersvest, and it was such good fun - pretty easy to do, and I didn't need much special equipment (I used my ordinary saucepans and a kitchen jug - that was pretty much it). I bought teacups and little coffee cups from ebay, and made teacup candles, and sold quite a few at craft fairs.

And I don't know what it says abut me, but I loved playing with hot wax!

I enjoyed this much more than I expected to but would have loved it to be a bit longer - I like getting to know the contestants before they are booted off! Hope SDTG is right and this was just a try-out to see how popular it was.

Would also enjoy seeing more than just dressmaking because I am terrible at it. Still a great watch though and so nice to see Ann win, one up for the more mature ladies :)

I had a horrible feeling that she wouldn't win, because the judges kept on saying she was playing it safe, and not being innovative or creative - and I was glad to be proved wrong.

i didn't like the bits where they showed you how to do other stuff - i only like dressmaking.

And the so-called instructions were crap anyway - too fast and not enough detail.

having one off a week would be better, and having a week where no one is off.

or maybe, actually, I would like to see a series where no one is disposed of.
that each week, there is a challenge winner, and a challenge loser, and a score board, and at the end, there is a grand final where everyone gets to take part.

so you can watch the sewers as they learn new techniques, and have them actually be shown those techniques. and then follow them all the way through on their journey.

You are absolutely right, Unique - that sounds like a great format, and would have the advantage of being different to so many other competitive knock-out style shows.

I do hate knockt out shows.

And this doesn't even need to be one - unlike the dancing show, where they have to take turns to dance. and therefore a show lasts longer if there are more of them, this one they all do their challenges at the same time, so it doesn't take any more time. and it means the programme can be watching lots of different styles at the same time, making it more interesting viewing.

Unique I hope they're reading this thread. That is a storming idea!! It would be a great format.

it would be nice if they were

That is a really good idea Unique - I know they think it makes for more dramatic viewing to lose someone each week but I hate it, you have no chance to get to know some of them (eg on GBSB the lady who went the first week seemed lovely) and on a 'gentle' programme like this it just seems a bit cruel - save elimination for the X-Factor I say and do this a bit differently.

The next series is six episodes long instead of four

Boo, the qualifying criteria mean I can't enter either

i'm quite enjoying having it on iplayer in the background while i'm at home working! any ideas how i can keep hold of it?, have downloaded from iplayer but it's only available for another 5 days or so