Yay! Sewing Bee is back!

[Roussette]

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?

How old are you that you used hand cranked machines

My Mum is a professional sewer and I learnt from her from a young age and we have always had electric machines. I keep on at OH to find me an old machine and convert it for me

I learned on a Singer just like the black ones they were using - mum told me it was a hand cranked one that had been converted to attach the electric motor - this took me back sooooo much! Mum still has that machine!

I loved the swish of Chinelo's and Linda's coats - I would love a coat like that - but my machine probably isn't up to fabric that heavy - and my poor skills certainly aren't up to the task!

I'd love one of those swing coats but I think I'm too short & dumpy.

I was surprised when said Heather "oh these remind me of the school machines" I'm sure we are about the same age and we certainly had fairly new machines at school ..though it was a new school

I used a hand cranked machine as my Gran had one but I am ancient . Then I used machines like they had on last night. Happy days

Aside from the machine challenges I didn't think the final challenge was that hard last night. I made a couple of wool capes last year and found it quite straight forward. So long as you use a nice lightweight lining the machine copes fine with the fabric. I've had some lovely compliments about mine from people asking me where I bought it.

My school had some new electric machines but also some hand-cranked models - I'd say it was about 50/50. I guess the old machines were just fairly indestructible so they kept them on.

I'm 55 and we definately had some of the hand cranked ones at school, turn the handle with one hand and guide the fabric with the other.

My mum had one as well, I remember us all oohing and aahhing over her new electric Jones sewing machine.

I want a treadle machine table, I saw one once at the local tip but they wouldn't let me take it

My mum had a treadle machine table and a sewing room. It was a small room in our house, too small for a bed and it had the hotwater pipes running through it. Happy days sat on the floor as a child warm and cosy, playing with buttons and scraps of material. If I could be just a quarter as good as she was at sewing, I would enter sewing bee!

46 and we had some lovely old singers.

Set up to handcrank, but still with treadles, but sadly no drive belts.

We had one new fangled electric machine.

My DM had electric sewing machines all my life so school made me

52 and we had mainly hand-cranked and you had to display a certain level of competence (which I never had!) before you were allowed to use one of the electric machines.

So sorry to see David go but not surprised - I suppose it was the righ decision.

I think it will be very close but I would still like to see Heather win. Never could really take to Tamara. I always get the impression she is checking out what everyone else is doing to see who might be a threat.

I was put on a treadle machine at school at age eleven (early 70s).

Most of my sewing was done at home as my DM had a handcranked Singer which then had a motor attached.

I'd left home before she got a fancy bells and whistles 'electric' machine.

I am under 40! (just) and I got given a hand cranked Singer for my 8th birthday, and I used it until I was 21 when I got an electric to make my wedding dress.
My dc now use my old Singer and it's a lovely machine. Funnily enough I never found that using one hand to crank it was any problem at all. But dd2 uses my electric fine and she's only got one hand too.

Just had a look and Heather is a few years 8 older than me. I went to secondary school late '76, the school had opened 2 years earlier so everything was brand spanking new. It was over a whole term before we were allowed to touch the machines, before that we were making bags and pin cushions and stuff. Our teacher was really miffed I could use a machine and even though we all did 'craft' the boys didnt really get much of a go on a machine.

Oh mean they wouldn't let you have the treadle from the skip..... my OH did his apprenticeship in Sewing Machine repair... he has told me when people used to trade in old treadles etc they would be destroyed and smashed up. He badgered them to let him refurbish and send abroad .....but smashing them up

Just watched this on iPlayer. Some lovely coats there, even the ones with issues.

We had electric machines at school in the early 80s - I'm feeling rather youthful now!

I'm thinking now the newness of mt school meant we got new fandangled things. My Mum was originally an industrial machinist so probably why we had electric at home

What I discovered when I replaced the broken crank unit on mine, is that it's very easy indeed to change a Singer from one drive method (treadle, hand, electric) to another - they're designed for it to just pop on and off with one screw.
If you wanted a treadle it's quite hard to find the whole kit and caboodle in working order, but you often see the individual bits on Ebay and in antique shops, so it wouldn't be an impossible job to get hold of a treadle and retrofit the machine.

Do the contestants get a budget to buy material? I was just thinking that some of the material in this week's programme must have been expensive, eg Tamara's silk lining.

oh dear we had the treadle table and all the bits sitting in our bathroom for years under a table cloth. Now my dad has turned the table into a flower pot - the hole in the middle for the sewing machine now holds his plant pots .

Loving the Sewing Bee - last year I actually dusted the box of the overlocker I am too scared to try, this year The Overlord (love claudia's name for it) might actually make it onto the desk!
I have, however, managed to make a Victorian type dress for DD2's dress-up day at school tomorrow. (waiting to get the evil stares from all other parents on the way to school!)

Housemum that's fantastic. Puts me to shame as I am a lapsed sewer but love hearing all about it!

Thank you :) (You can't see the slightly botched bits from this distance!)
The other pic is my present to myself, a wall mounted cotton reel holder from eBay, a man in Wales makes them for £20 delivered. I love it, means I actually have one place to keep the cotton reels (rather than jumbled in a box) and I can see all the colours at a glance :)
I fantasise about being a grandmother and sitting in my sewing room (it really exists, well I have a desk in our spare room with my sewing machine on) and making lovely quilts/clothes for the grandchildren. (My 21yo DD1 would be probably be horrified that I'm hoping she has kids one day!)

Housemum It was a Victorian style dress for my DD which persuaded me to start sewing again! My needlework lessons at school were a disaster and when I left I was sure I would never attempt to make any garment ever again.

But when DD was small I did a few simple fancy dress costumes then, when she was in Y1, they had a trip to a local stately home and had to dress as Victorian servants for the day. I found a pattern and to my astonishment realised I could still understand what it all meant. I had no machine so handsewed the whole thing - including a little mob cap to go with it.

It looked rather good if I say so myself so after that I bought a sewing machine so I could knock out a few simple garments from time to time.

difficultpickle, I think Ann said last year that their challenge fabric is paid for.

Can I join the "Victorians got me sewing again" club? Although in my case I just made a pinafore and bloomers to go with DD1's most Victorian-looking dress (and I bodged the neck binding quite spectacularly, but we shall not speak of that). I've uploaded a photo to my profile (ignore the very non-Victorian shoes, too ).