Great British Sewing Bee is back on 15th July

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I'm looking forward to it.

Her sewing room was a dream!

I think that the recycling challenge should be replaced with either a section on millinery or on historical clothing. For example create a crinoline dress or doublet and hose.

I definitely think Kit will win , he seems to have the winning combination of good sewing ability and style/vision.

He does seem to be the stand out sewer so far.

I hate the transformation rounds where they have to make something totally impractical, e.g. using old umbrellas or beach tents etc, because no-one would ever do that voluntarily in a million years and it really tells you very little about the contestants' skills.

FBA? I did try Google and it couldn't help.

Full bust adjustment. Most patterns are made to standard proportions and will require adjustment to fit the maker properly. Having to do a full bust adjustment is fairly common if you're a larger cup size. I generally have to do some sort of shoulder seam adjustment because I have rounded shoulders and I don't make (or buy) any thing with a fitted waist because I'm an extreme apple.

It's not that it's a man in a dress that's annoying as such, but in a m2m challenge it gives that sewer an advantage. There is no need to add darts, or work around a bust and waist that are greatly different, or not making armholes gape because of more fabric for the bust, while still making the garment look good.

You could argue that it is more difficult to make a dress with a flat chest as it won't be a standard pattern and will require the removal of shaping rather than adding more.

And I'd argue that the whole point of made to measure is to make the garment fit the model, whether the model is thin, fat, busty, flat-chested, tall, short, male or female.

No. That is why designers use stick thin flat chested models. Zero shaping required

I think it rather depends on the information they are given before hand. If they are told their model is male, larger, has a big chest then they can select a pattern accordingly.

I wonder if they are given a choice of model, or at least a profile. (M/f, age range, general body shape). I don’t recall such a potentially tricky subject appearing in week 2 as this with its stretchy fabrics, zips etc.

@LIZS I believe they are. I recall Vicky from a couple of years ago saying that she asked for plus size model to match her dress size.

But they (Sewing Bee contestants) tend to use standard patterns which they have to adapt not something created by designers for cat walk models.

Do you sew? It would be literally the easiest thing to flatten it against a FBA, raise the waist and widen the hips

I make almost all my own clothes and have sewn since I was a teenager. I am now 70. I think adapting to flat chested or plus size would both have their problems.

I remember that. She asked for someone with a similar body shape to herself as that was what she was used to seeing for, as I recall.

You cut the cloth to suit the person. That's the golden rule of sewing on a made to measure.

Is everyone else on holiday this week? Where are you all?

And when did lamé become la-may?

Yay. History bit is back!

I suppose it's one of those words you don't know how to pronounce if you've only ever seen it written down. Or is it American?

I'm excited to see them using the coverstitch machine but it's not a machine your average home dressmaker will have. Enjoying this series so far, mostly a group of fairly decent sewists which personally I find much more interesting than people making a mess of stuff and making it look hard.

Minerva clearly supplying the fabrics again!

My husband has just asked me where they get the sample garments for the pattern challenge...the one on the mannequin that Patrick and Esme discuss right at the start.

I never really thought about it before: i assume the show have someone hired to run up the pattern challenge each week?

Anyone know?

Man in tie at sewing machine makes me nervous - he could get tangled.