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Original poster

Yay! Sewing Bee is back!

777 replies

Roussette · 17/02/2014 13:43

Does anyone else watch it? Or is it just me...

I love it because it reminds me of another life when I used to sew (before the DC's came along and before I lost the footpedal to my sewing machine in a house move).

The contestants are just so talented and I like the beardy man judge too. Anyone else?

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Original poster
Roussette · 19/03/2014 09:34

I could manage a challenge like this (although not produce such gobsmacking results) because I used to use my dear old mum's hand cranked Singer and yes, there is perfect control without it running away with you.

However, I would take the whole week till the next episode to produce anything so at this moment in time I don't think I will be applying to enter the show!
(p.s. they are asking for contestants for the next series - anyone on here prepared to? Us MNers would support you all the way!)

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TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 09:39

Not me. Nothing like good enough and rubbish under pressure.
I'm desperate for CBBC to do a Junior Sewing Bee though, so I can put dd in it and live vicariously through her.

BlueSkySunnyDay · 19/03/2014 11:51

I was sorry to see Jenni go, I felt Heather should have this week.

Nice to see a chap doing well because he actually has some ability, although there were perhaps points earlier where he possibly should have gone.

DebbieOfMaddox · 19/03/2014 11:55

DS told me I should enter. Hahahahahahahahaha. No. I can do children's clothes, because they are more-or-less straight up-and-down and the fitting issues are simple particularly if you have low standards but beyond that (oh, and probably an A-line skirt. Hard to go wrong with an A-line skirt) I generally dare not venture. And everything would take me three or four times the time allowed.

We used hand-cranked machines some of the time at school (they were nice and reassuring and didn't run away with you) but that was a long, LONG time ago.

DebbieOfMaddox · 19/03/2014 11:57

You could have made a case for David going this week, because his second challenge was Not Good and his other two were distinctly middling. But I think they prefer to focus on someone who's had a complete disaster in either the first or the third challenges.

I really had no idea who was going to go last night -- at least, I assumed that it would be one of David/Jenni/Heather, but I wouldn't have hazarded a guess as to which one.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 12:01

Didn't he do ok on the anorak?

DebbieOfMaddox · 19/03/2014 12:03

He did OK -- third or fourth out of six, I think, which (and I admit it's been a while since I studied Maths) is pretty darn middling.

RhinestoneCowgirl · 19/03/2014 12:04

I've even had DH watching this series with me as ages ago he used to work with David (there were many Daves in the office so he was known as Squaddie Dave, as was in TA).

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 12:05
Grin

That is fairly middling! I had it in my head that he'd come second but perhaps that's just because he was fairly confident about it at first - hadn't he sewn nylon before in the Territorials or something?

DebbieOfMaddox · 19/03/2014 12:10

Just checked (for the interests of posterity) -- anorak was 1. Tamara, 2. Jenni, 3. David, 4. Chinelo, 5. Heather, 6. Lynda

It's interesting that they never formally rank the final challenge entries (presumably to stop posters like us from whipping out the pocket calculators and going "well, I think you'll find that applying the weighting algorithm they seemed to have used last week means that X should have gone rather than Y...")

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 12:12

Yes, I think you're right. It gives them more space to be subjective choose according to who they want in future programmes rather than who's the best sewer.

Original poster
Roussette · 19/03/2014 14:27

Wow Rhinestone your DH knows David! I am impressed by him, especially when he said he'd made a dress for his wife Grin

I have a girlfriend I have known all my life and I am urging her to enter. I know she is capable but she thinks she isn't. She can turn her hand to anything and is always off to classes to learn more. She regularly goes off on weekends away, she's made beautiful material handbags and even an umbrella! The reason why she says she won't is because she does more soft furnishings type stuff now, and not so much clothes and also she had 3 sons so obviously doesn't sew for them much. She has made mens jackets though in her time. I wish she would but she doesn't have the confidence and says she will make an arse of herself!

She said she would do it if I would do Come Dine With Me. No brainer then because that is an absolute NO!

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BlueSkySunnyDay · 19/03/2014 15:30

I think you could be a brilliant dressmaker
and still come unstuck under this kind of pressure.

I don't think I could do it, I would just go blank, like the chap at the beginning of the series did.

AramintaDeWinter · 19/03/2014 16:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DebbieOfMaddox · 19/03/2014 17:09

You could just send off the form for her, Roussette. Jenni was entered by her husband without her knowledge...

(mind you, then she might enter you for CDWM without your knowing, but you could probably get out of that by just being sickeningly Nice and Reasonable in your initial chat so that they think they won't get any drama out of you)

Original poster
Roussette · 19/03/2014 18:17

Debbie I really wish she would enter it! I just have a feeling it would be good for her and she would be good for it! As for CDWM, the thought of contestants being rude about my cooking would fill me with dread so yes I would just be ultra pleasant and normal and they wouldn't pick me Grin

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OwlCapone · 19/03/2014 19:35

I've just watched this on iPlayer. I thought David should have gone this week TBH.

Finally, a whole month later, I have my own Pin Dog. He is, naturally, called Patrick. :)

Yay! Sewing Bee is back!
Yay! Sewing Bee is back!
RhinestoneCowgirl · 19/03/2014 19:40

He worked with him years ago Rousette, but it has sucked DH into the whole Sewing Bee world Grin

Original poster
Roussette · 19/03/2014 21:03

Owl he is fantastic! (and he is posing on doggy books!)

Rhinestone your DH will be running you up a wrap dress next!

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LRDtheFeministDragon · 19/03/2014 21:18

Just caught up with this. I was shocked Patrick said someone hadn't impressed 'May and I' ... I thought he was all proper grammar.

I felt so sorry for Jenni but it would have been cruel to keep her on, I think - she was just hating it towards the end, wasn't she? I thought Chinelo's stuff this week was uncharacteristically meh and unflattering.

I've just cut out my first dress pattern. And fingers crossed it will work. Maybe by next time I'll have sewn bits! Grin

OwlCapone · 19/03/2014 21:56

I was sure the final three would be Chinelo, Lynda and Heather. I'm not so sure about Heather now as she's had a few dodgy weeks.

David should go next week I think, unless he really pulls something spectacular out of the bag.

My dad was a great sewer - he once made my mum a full length leather coat! Mind you, he also once scalded her chest with the steam iron whilst pressing a lapel so it wasn't all good :)

OwlCapone · 19/03/2014 21:58

Thank you Rousette. I love Patrick the Pin Dog very much. His legs are a little bandy but it adds character, which Heather's dog lacks I feel. [biased]

Original poster
Roussette · 20/03/2014 06:36

And his name is Patrick! Grin

I think Jenni was beginning to lose her confidence a bit and with this sort of programme you just can't do that. David is just 'oh well, I've done what I can' which has seen him through so far. I think they all love him though, he seems to help everyone out and he will be missed if he goes next week because then it will get all serious I think.

If I had even an ounce of my dear old mum's talent for sewing I would enter! There was nothing she couldn't make but I just don't have her patience. If I sew something wrong I just want to throw it across the room, she would unpick and start again endlessly if she had to. I love the pics of me when I was tiny with the smocking on the dresses she had made for me. I have a dress here she made and smocked and won a competition with, it's beautiful

I feel Chinelo has faded a bit but she pulls it out the bag when under pressure and creates some wonderful garments.

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OwlCapone · 20/03/2014 06:56

Chinelo seems to struggle with the pattern challenge, do OK with the alteration and excel with the Big Challenge at the end. It shows where her talents lie I think. She is very very good at making and designing what she wants to make.

SpringComeHereYouFabulousSeaso · 20/03/2014 07:12

Me and dc love Lynda. She's fab.

I think Tamara needs to adapt her children's entertainer style and get a bit more sophisticated if she wants to stay in. Her anorak was amazing this week.

Chinelo is hit and miss for me. I think her very competitive streak slightly puts me off even though she is obviously an immensely talented sewer.

I like the posh totty lady - so relentlessly cheerful, her velvet trouser were great.

I think David is nice too and has pulled a couple of great pieces out of the bag but his alterations challenge this week was awful. I reckon he'll go next.