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.

you don't need the bias for corners though - you use the more stable with grain cut, and do mitred corners.

For a curve, especially on a bias cut dress, you absolutely do need bias binding.

Good series with a great bunch of contestants, but I don't think any of them had the combination of skill and sheer artistic imagination that both Asmaa and the French guy Raph, from a few years back, had.

I thought Caz was probably the right winner, but I though Yasmin made the most progress throughout the series, and seemed to grow in confidence.

It was lovely to hear the girls chattering away in Gaelic.

An interesting point that struck me after the show. I went away and googled trompe l'oeil fashion and a lot of the images that came up played with sheer and opaque textures. On the assumption that the contestants will have done a similar search at the start of preparing for the M2M it means that the transformation challenge would have been a bit related to the M2M and they should all have had some inspiration floating around in their heads.

i didn't really like any of the m2m, Orlas didn't look nice and you could see the colours from the front.
the other 2 looked uncomfortable. but glad Caz won.

@SynysterGates Love your taste in music! A7x fan too.

I agree with you about the M2M - none of them really looked 'wearable'.

What a lovely final! Three lovely women who seemed genuinely to like each other.

Yes, so lovely. The atmosphere was unlike any final I've seen in this kind of programme. They just all seemed to be having a ball! I thought Caz was a worthy winner but they were all great. Lovely series, and looking forward to seeing Sophie Willan do her stuff next time.

I don't think it really fitted the brief as trompe l'oeil, because it could only work if you were head on and the same height as the model. As soon as you become aware that those are actually coloured tubes with random squares of black fabric on the end, it just looks peculiar. Also it wasn't that well sewn as she had to do a bit of a bodge job to stop the tubes hanging down.

Having belatedly googled trompe l'oeil fashion, a lot of it seems to depend on specially printed fabrics which wasn't, I assume, available to the contestants. I suspect that left them with a brief that was near-impossible to fulfil properly.

In the past I think contestants have said they have had fabric printed especially. It's not that difficult to organise and less expensive that I at first imagined. A quick Google came up with half a dozen UK firms which will do it.

I don't think any of the designs fitted trompe l'oeil as I understand it.

According to this article Schiaparelli knitting a bow into a jumper in 1927 was part of the trompe l’oeil trend. It goes on to say The bow sweater has been referenced time and time again, which isn’t surprising considering its revolutionary nature.
It wouldn't have been beyond any of the contestants to use some fabric paint on plain fabric to get a similar effect, but they'd probably have had to incorporate it into a well-fitted garment to win M2M.

Orla used her own printed fabric earlier in the series so all the contestants were aware of this possibility.

i do have a love for M Shadows.

I've used a company called Woven Monkey for printed fabric.

But does getting fabric printed really constitute good sewing? For instance, you could get fabric printed so that it looks like someone in a dress is wearing overalls. All you need to do is line up the front and back properly, sew the side seams, maybe do a couple of darts, and hem or bias bind all the raw edges and you're done and twiddling your fingers for a couple of hours.

If you can pattern match, you could do that. It would take skill to pull it off as couture not costume. I like the overalls idea, very creative!

it all comes back to: for a show like the Bee, that was an utterly ridiculous task for the final m2m.

Like, as pp said, a fully working model of Babbage's difference engine in 3 types of biscuit on the bake off

(i stopped bake-off btw, when Jürgen the Bread was on. They made an utterly ridiculous -especially to a German - bread thing, and that is when i realised it had descended into stupidity. Hope the Bee isn't going the same way)

The final m2m was a bit of a letdown but I understood all the references and liked Yasmin's attempt at the bow. Overall Caz was the worthy winner from a group of fantastic sewers this year. Also I loved Sara's outfit in the final, very elegant.

I feel Yasmins tie detail fitted the trompe l'oeil brief really well, and if she had sown things better I feel she might have pipped Caz to win

I think this is the first series where I’ve not been interested in making the items made on sewing bee. Normally there are at least one or two things that I’d like to have a go at. I wonder if it’s because everything has felt a bit more like costume this year

Great show, the right winner. I liked her background research during the series. Thorough and interesting.

I enjoyed the final especially as I've just visited the place it is filmed. There isn't access to the set, though I think they are missing a truck and could add in a Sewing Bee exhibition.

The mills themselves are interesting and include a gorgeous little fabric shop offering seeing classes and a wool shop, amongst others.

that sounds like a place for my next trip - where is it, Leeds?

I loved the series but thought the last episode was a let down. Cas' dress was clever but not trompe l'oeil so didn't fit the brief. The transformation outfits were grim,nobody would actually wear those.
Maybe I'm.just old. My favourite sewers were Stuart and Gaynor

Yes it is.

https://www.sunnybankmills.co.uk

I was wondering about that when I saw a sign for a tea shop in one shot. Where exactly is it?

Edit: that's already been answered now. Thanks.

I thoroughly enjoyed the final; as others have said, they were a truly lovely bunch. I don't think the transformation round was ‘ridiculous’, as a PP said; I think it was a really interesting exercise to use different kinds and layers of translucent fabric to create a not fully see-through overall effect.
I'm very happy that Caz won; her made to measure was a triumph, although for me Yasmin’s was a close second – I really liked the blurry effect of the semi-see-through layers around the edges.
Orla’s idea was terrific, but it didn't quite come off in reality. I did love her actual dress though; it was a bit Edwardian and a bit like battle dress and I liked the severity and the structured nature of it. I can see myself wearing it!