Sewing Bee is back

[Cocolapew]

Wednesday 24th May at 9pm 🥳

As entertainment varying skills is good. But it is sold as a competition to find Britain's best amateur sewist.

I think the postman (Tony?) , Vicki and fauve are looking really strong right now. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a male winner this year. Fauve reminds me of Annie last year , in that shes quietly working away and treating it like a marathon rather than a sprint.

Same here. I'm good at making what suits me in my own time. Friends have urged me to apply but I never will partly because of the time and partly because of the strange things I might be asked to make (I have made a rucksack that would be OK) but that's why I can't understand why she's there. She seems surprised by everything she's been asked to do.

I don't dislike Matthew, he is what he is, but on purely sewing terms I think he'll go next week.

I agree @CaptainMyCaptain I think Matthew or Maria will go next week.

I think Matthew is creative and has a lot of good ideas but isn't anything like the best sewer. I think Esme will enjoy his flair for a bit but ultimately he either has to massively improve or he will run out of road. I've no issue with him designing swimwear for the trans community in the slightest. The trans debate for me isn't about clothing. People can look how they like and wear what they want.

I thought for week 2 a rucksack was a touch pattern challenge. So many elements and not a huge amount of time. Gillie has probably never handled one in her life! I like this year's cohort. Some obvious talent from very early one. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

*tough

Gillie went for two reasons. She wasn't very good and she went her in merry way, ignoring good advice and, more importantly, the brief. She broke the cardinal rule and it's happened before. As soon as she disregarded what Patrick said about reversing the rucksack fabric I thought she was a goner. She might have saved herself by doing an amazing job, but she didn't.

The judges faces when she said she was doing a simple swimsuit, minutes after the judges talking about how a simple swimsuit wouldn't be enough, was a picture. Her card had been marked and that was the death knell.

Matthew's was terrible though, but he showed ambition. I think that's what saved him.

She went her own merry way.

I agree, the right person was eliminated. I'm happy to cut Gillie some slack. For all we know, she applied, was accepted and then had something massive to deal with that put her right off her stride. I'm at a loss to decide why the production team would have chosen her if they hadn't thought she showed a lot more promise than she demonstrated in the two episodes she was in. Surely anybody who's ever watched the Sewing Bee knows time pressure is a huge part of the challenge, and it's very rarely enough to do one simple thing, even if it's perfect?

As ever, I was reflecting that it would take me the best part of 90 minutes to thread a needle, never mind produce a wearable garment.

She probably is a fantastic sewer but seemed incapable of listening to instruction or following a brief. As a PP poster said the judges had only just said the swimsuit needed at least one complex element and she says she's doing a simple swimsuit. I'm assuming she thought the addition of bias binding made it 'complex' but at the end when she went she actually said that she thought by using a dramatic busy fabric she wouldn't have to do much to it and that would be enough. She just didn't seem very bright.

There was someone similar in Baked Off. they had to do a classic cake with a twist. She did a Victoria Sponge with cherry jam instead of the usual. Not particularly innovative and she didn't do it particularly well.

Some people just aren't very creative but they're very good at what they do.

www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/cheer-on-gillie-in-the-great-british-sewing-bee-9313916/

Some interesting background on Gillie here. Her mother was a fashion designer.

The early weeks are all about picking off the bottom layer of contestants and it doesn't matter much which order they go in really. Matthew is unlikely to make it to the final but it doesn't matter whether it was him, Gillie or Lizzie who went this week (they are the ones I thought did worst this week).

How long did they get to make the rucksack? A pattern I found online for a simpler one said 5-6 hours!

How is he a one trick pony? I was convinced there would be a harness on his swimsuit and was pleasantly surprised. No harness on his windbreak thing either! it will be interesting to see whether he adds any next week.

3 hours I think.

I reckon I could just about do it in that time but I think what is key with these tasks is having done stuff like that before.

If you have constructed bags and attached webbing straps before and made sense of the instructions and made all the commom mistakes already at your own leisure and could probably make a good stab at doing it without having to sit and read every instruction then you have a massive head start.

A really good potter left the Pottery Throwdown because they didn't follow the brief. They were a potential winner but I think it's fair enough when all the other contestants are doing what is asked of them.

Makes me cringe when I see it in any of the programmes like this because you know the axe is hovering and ready to fall.

I want to make a rucksack now. Possibly in waxed canvas because I see those for sale and they can be VERY expensive.

Exactly right.

Hyacinth Bucket's neighbour.

She was one of the celeb sewing bee contestants Christmas 2020

I think she's better this year than she was in the last series.

Just caught up with episode one and two.

Seem a decent bunch, the two who went went deservedly.

Find two of the men irritating (one of the Tonys and Matthew) though as it's not a personality competition I'll have to squash that!!

Though I'm not sure Matthew is good enough to last - especially if he has to make clothes that will successfully retain boobs. That weird strappy thing would be unsuccessful 😄.

Tony (Cornwall one) seems able fir the time pressure.

I think Gillie was trying to do a posh impression of Dora Bryan - it didn’t work .

@DelphiniumBlue I agree. She seems to have no warmth at all. Spoils it a bit for me. She's no Claudia/Joe.