Great British Sewing Bee is back on 15th July

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I'm looking forward to it.

Can I just say that this is absolute genius!

I can't sew for toffee but I love this show. The baby doll dress looked far too hard for a 4.5 hour challenge. I assume they have an expert do a test run first before setting the challenge?

Love Orla, I'm thinking Gaynor has to go next. She just can't be arsed, I think she'll be relieved to go.

Although she didn't make them very well, the tabs were integral to her design. They were an important part of the clothes we used to cut out of magazines to 'dress' the cut out dolls. I loved doing it and thank you @BishyBarnyBee for posting the picture of Bunty. Took me right back to my childhood.

Im glad Kit won garment of the week this week. He hit the brief perfectly.

I think if Gaynor had chosen different colours, and made the dress shorter, she would have hit the brief as her dress did have a 60s pop art feel. Even if she had edged her cutouts with black bias binding it would have worked.

Stuart's dress was interesting and well made, but wrong fabric pattern choice and didn't fit the model. I am sad to see him go as he seemed nice, and I loved seeing him morph more and more into Patrick 😆

Esme does seem quite critical, but she likes interesting garments and innovation as well as well sewn clothing. Patrick does seem more about the sewing. It was interesting she thought Orlas transformation challenge popped out, despite it being quite a drab colour. I always thought she was after bright colours. I guess it's more how Orla used the fabric and placed the paint splatters.
I think if Gaynor didn't used the bow and turned the skirt so the low bit was on the side, hers would have looks more asymmetrical.

This is more or less exactly how we feel , I’m sure she’s delightful in real life but she is really bringing down the mood on this series , I’d have rather kept Dan or Stuart at least they tried to stretch themselves .

From the Sewing Bee Facebook page:

Flintlock wow

weren’t some of them on the tomorrow people

I thought at the time that it would have been wittier if she said she had put it in the recycling bin!

Flintlock! I interviewed them for a kids radio show when I was about 12.
One of them (Mike) was in The Tomorrow People (a kids sci fi show) and tbh no one had eyes for anyone else so I have no recollection of Mr Pascoe.

I did, decades ago and probably only once. You have to wind the shirring elastic onto the bobbin by hand and relatively loosely.
I can't remember how it turned out, only that it wasn't worth the effort.

I always did two rows of gathering threads within the seam allowance, but I like a PP's suggestion of doing one either side of the stitching line. You'd have to be sure to use a sharp needle and to test first whether removing the thread after the stress of gathering would leave a row of holes in the fabric.

When Patrick and Esme first said they hated the bag - when the outfit was being modelled - I really wanted the model to scrunch it up and fling it to the side really quickly 😂

Definitely. Some fabric does bruise very easily. I Don't wear much of that sort of fabric!

I almost never gather. I make unpressed pleats

Didn't enjoy last night's episode as much as I have others. The Grayson dress was an exciting challenge but I think it's an ugly dress for an adult, and for an adult man ... no. I think the ratings were fair, Gaynor got the collar wrong somehow but getting the seams on skirt to top wrong = !

I was disappointed in Gaynor last night (I've been a big cheerleader for her); she must have seen the show before for goodness sake, the idea she's coming into the transformation challenge with - nothing - is crazy. Zero idea of what to do. I did see Esme do a bit of a "bad smell" face when they were talking about Gaynor in the who-goes discussion. Esme has written Gaynor off, my opinion. Patrick at least gave the compliment that she sews well. Unless someone else has a horror next week Gaynor is gone.

Caz's m2m dress was fun and funky, Kit's was well thought out but paper / quick throwaway fashion puzzles me. Gaynor's main dress (mustard) was a horrible colour. Stuart's was a lot of work in the putting together but didn't fit. There's not much for me to choose between the other two girls.

I was obsessed with the Tomorrow people. I used to spend school play time jaunting round the playground with my friend. There was a set of playground apparatus that was the hub where the computer whose name I forget lived. I have the DVDs. Mike was OK but John was my idol

I liked Stuart. So well turned out and self deprecating. He seemed a really nice guy.

Yes, I agree. They come into the M2M knowing what they want to do, Being able to practice it, and picking their own material. Stuart made a huge mistake by not adhering to the pop art elements, but Gaynor must have had time to do some research. As a PP said, she is the oldest of the remaining sewers, and surely she must’ve had an idea of pop art. I knew what it was, and I’m a lot younger than her. A quick Google would bring you up to speed and allow you to get some ideas going. I think why the MTM is concerned, ignorance of the topic is no defence.

My mum's older than Gaynor and much less old fashioned.

I'm always interested in the older bakers on GBBO, as they rarely do well - I think Jane Beedle may have been the last over 60 to get to the final, and generally the older bakers go out quite early. I think it's as much about stamina and holding your nerve as about skill and creativity - it looks like a very intense, stressful process which just goes on week after week and they are all pretty knackered by the end of it. And I wonder if, particularly if you are retired, you just aren't used to working flat out at that intensity. Otherwise, you'd think age, experience and not having to hold down a job or care for a young family might mean the older contestants should find it easier.

I agree Gaynor looks like she has had enough now.

Wow - I only recognised Mike tbh - he showed up on a cover of Look In on google - I’d forgotten about Look In too (have the advert song in my head now)

I remember Flintlock - I think they were a bit shit. I knew Sarah Pascoe was Derek's daughter but I'd forgotten that Mike Holloway ended up in The Tomorrow People - "Jaunt, Tim" 😄

My mum is 10 years old than Gaynor and far more contemporary in her clothes, atitude and outlook. Gaynor's age if anything should have been an advantage with the pop art theme, she may be a good sewer but she comes across as a mood hoover, a bit sniffy and disapproving somehow.

The very first winner of Sewing Bee was 81 though.
BBC One - The Great British Sewing Bee, Series 1 - Ann https://share.google/n5xJmsicctr7pJzlQ

I agree. And do did Esme. I think she said I'm going to miss you to Stuart?

Bit shocked at some of these posts knocking someone because they have the sheer gall to 'not be contemporary' and is just being herself. Shes not making fake silly jokes or trying to play to the crowd. The joy of these programmes, just like bake off is that it should be the man or woman on the street, not just because someone is savvy or up to date (whatever that means) or cheery chirpy or hilarious but representative of huge swathes of people.

What happened to accepting someone's true self and acknowledging and embracing someones identity?

I agree that I don’t think someone should have to be super up to date etc but I would expect her to have a better idea about pop art. My mum is the same age as Gaynor. She most certainly knows about pop art and even has some original pieces!