Great British Sewing Bee is back. Thread 2 - Art week is our past, Movies are our present

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

For when the first thread is full. I may be watching but won't be posting because I won't have access to a computer and I need the speed of a keyboard to get my opinion out there before I forget what it is.

The Big Allotment Challenge with Fern Britton. It was great! As is the woodworking one with Mel G.

I thought Sophie was just presenting the Celeb Christmas Special, not taking over full time? But just to say I love her, and loved Almas not Normal. She is currently pregnant and I don't know when filming for these shows happened

They're filming the next series of GBSB at the moment.

I liked the allotment one but wanted to see more on the fruit and veg growing and less flower arranging. Everyone I know with an allotment mainly grows flowers for the pollinators.

It reminds me of the Primary school years and making costumes from whatever was at the back of the cupboard, in half an hour, whilst simultaneously wrestling small children into the bath.

And not in a good way.

That would be very slow TV though!

Have you ever applied? I did and sadly didn't make it through.

Oh, 'eck, no way! I simply cannot sew that fast. I can spend 5 hours just cutting something out 😂

I wouldn't dream of applying. I'm hopeless at sewing. I have made things in the past but it takes me ages. Now I always think I can do it but once I get the sewing machine out, the air turns blue! Everything goes wrong. Even threading the needle takes me forever and a lot of cursing. If I was on the programme, they'd have to air it after the watershed or get the bleeping machine on overtime.

No comedy sketches can be as bad as Victoria Coren Mitchell on Only Connect. And she actually writes hers. Awful. I remember reading on here posters saying "But that's the joke, they're meant to be not funny". Er, no.

I would have had a go 30 years ago but I haven’t sewn much since then. I should get back into it. I used to love making my own patterns.

Same here.

I was really disappointed this year.

It was Blue Peter with some fabric.

I thought this year's has been much better.

I like this one. I think it's still going, isn't it?

According to the blurb linked above, the knitting thing is going to include team challenges, and it says this:

Each week, the competitors must create a whole host of unique makes and larger than life sculptural pieces – all made from wool. These include clothing, jewellery, home accessories, furniture, sculptures and they may even try their hands at ‘yarn bombing’.

Not keen on that, to be honest. Who the hell ever gets into a team to knit sculptural objects in normal day to day life?

True - but who makes a hanging, light-up, working biscuit sculpture (or similar) in normal day-to-day life? To be honest, I make cakes but I don't even ice them, let alone build towers of them with secret patterns on the inside.

I would want extra time for tea breaks and a biscuit or four.

The knitting one can have post box toppers. Although they may die out now the PO is putting solar panels on top of lots of post boxes

In Southwell Minster there is an exhibition about WW2 all crocheted. This picture depicts the end of the war at Buckingham Palace.

@CaptainMyCaptain I love that kind of thing and would like to see it. The people who do it are so talented and make their work look magical.

‘honestly, pattern drafting is actually easy: if you got patience, a calculator and Winifred Aldrich’s ‘metric pattern cutting for women…’

I have all these things but am still to anxious about failing to try.

I applied for this series. Mostly because I was curious about the process though. You can't apply if you have recent qualifications in fashion/textiles or earn your main income from sewing. You have to upload 5ish photos of recent makes and there's plenty of space to talk about your life and other hobbies on the form , there was also an option to add a video of yourself. I didn't get anywhere , I'm assuming that's because I'm pretty dull and also I didn't add a video to my application!

Re allotments not them actually growing just discussing different growing techniques. I am quite anoraky though and don’t think growing things or sewing need to be made more “ entertaining”. If I want to be entertained I will watch fiction. I watch sewing and gardening programs to be informed educated and impressed. I just find the fluffy stuff irritating. I want to watch talented sewers making garments people will actually wear with talent and flair, and flair doesn’t mean wackiness.

And an armchair in which I can mull something over.