Sewing Bee 2024

[ThreeWordHarpy]

I expect there will be a thread in the crafts forum, but only posting this here because my usual sewing social media channels have gone a bit bananas because one of the contestants is a DEI director, has they/them pronouns and a drag persona/alter ego. https://www.williamgee.co.uk/the-great-british-sewing-bee-2024-air-date-and-contestants/

Aside from the central casting cliche, (the usual Love Productions approach) I wish the contestant luck and I look forward to seeing what they can do in the sewing room My main point that any discussion on the program itself is going to be impossible until and unless that contestant is eliminated. Interestingly, it seems that people are a lot less “be kind” than they were for Matthew last year. Or maybe the moderators of the FB groups I’m on haven’t yet swing into action with the ban hammer…

Luke looks like Patrick's long lost twin.
Ta for the heads up, love a bit of sewing bee.

The Beeb always have to shoehorn drag into everything these days. Hope the sewer is just a person who sews and not his alter ego all the time.

Interestingly I went back to FB to see if I could quantify any way the change in reactions between this years contestant and Matthew last year but I can’t find the post so I think it’s gone already.

i compare it to Pottery Throwdown. Having dabbled at the very edge of pottery, you really need to be able to afford the equipment, the space to put it and the electricity bill for the kiln, to do it at all seriously. It seems everyone is just a little bit eccentric in a naice middle class way, and Throwdown seems representative of the pottery community with everyone accepting of everyone else. I see very few if any negative comments on Rose the kiln technician and AJ who won it a couple of years ago.

Whereas if you go to any of the big sewing fairs, the overwhelming majority of attendees are women aged 45-75. If that’s representative of the sewing community I can’t see any production company making a sewing programme with 10 middle aged women, one textiles student, and one long suffering husband there to carry the bags home. . So I fully support the idea of showing that sewing can be for everyone, I just wish Love Productions didn’t appear to have a casting list with established “types” that appear every year. The young mum making clothes for her kids, the no nonsense northern granny making clothes for her grandkids, the young inexperienced sewer who is brilliant at design, the methodical older gentleman, the wacky younger man with an “innovative” approach to fabrics and design, the man making clothes for drag performers. At least I can’t spot a surgeon/doctor amongst the occupations as they would be the favourite to win from the off based on previous series.

I remember one year the final make was a ball dress type outfit. One made a dress for their male friend and got marked down because it didn’t need to be made to take account of the much curvier (and therefore more complex) female shape.

These programs are not really sewing, pottery or baking competitions; they are TV shows structured around sewing etc. The contestants are chosen for TV appeal and are definitely not because they are the best sewers applying to the show.

Meh. I can’t get that excited about it. Nearly everyone I know who sews is either an elderly woman, OR in the LGBT/queer/alternative subculture. It’s hardly news that a lot of people who’re into fashion are also gay or alternative - the programme probably hits about the right balance here.

People into cosplay is the other group who pop up

I think there are skills that were once commonplace and have now been lost. I enjoy watching skilled people using their skills.

I will see which boxes have been ticked in casting when I watch it.

These programs are not really sewing, pottery or baking competitions; they are TV shows structured around sewing etc. The contestants are chosen for TV appeal and are definitely not because they are the best sewers applying to the show

Sadly I think you’re right in how they evolved. The first series of Sewing Bee was very different with the winner being an older lady who was an excellent tailoress, but the makeover challenges were alterations that reflected real life scenarios rather than “make an outfit from a deckchair”. She’d have struggled in later seasons with that round.

It’s all about the “journey” now isn’t it. I used to really enjoy Who Do You Think You Are? back in the earlier series it gave more information about how the researchers found the information and showed the celebs logging onto Ancestry a bit more - although clearly staged it at least acknowledged how some of the information was derived. The focus on actual genealogy has faded considerably recently.

Was Matthew the rather sweet one who put harnesses on absolutely everything but was actually a bit shit at sewing?

I wouldn't be surprised - assuming they're a gender-addled grievance gerbil - if this new one is similar.

I think this is more reflective of who you know than the sewing community! Many, many sewers (definitely most sewers) do not fit into the 'LGBT/queer/alternative' subculture, but are broadly as a poster describes them upthread!

I don't know why anyone is surprised by the tickbox casting on these shows, every single one runs to the same pattern:

• Retired man.
• Retired woman.
• Manly man who also does baking/sewing etc
• English person.
• Scottish person.
• Welsh person.
• Irish person.
• European person.
• Female student.
• Gay man.
• etc.

The great British sewing bee walks into a bar...but what's the punchline?

Yes, that’s why I said I also know a lot of elderly women who sew.

Agreed, I like these programmes but you can see the Demograohic requirements a mile off. There have been negative comments in MN about Rose in the Pottery Throwdown, they have apparently made questionable comments on SM or somewhere-or-other. Sorry, can't remember details but I remember reading it on MN quite some time ago

All these shows probably have a tick box list that is used, it's obvious. It's not about the UK's best amateur sew-er. It's about the best sew-er out of a carefully curated diversity approved, group of people preapproved and selected to participate in a lightweight, fluffy TV show that pretends to be a competition.

If anyone is a doctor, they'll win.
If anyone cheats by copying vintage patterns and claiming they drafted it themselves (2 previous entrants), they'll receive high praise indeed.
If anyone designs and makes for a drag artist, self or a pal, they'll be fabulous.
It's predictable.

I agree some of Rose’s pottery work and online comments are noteworthy of discussion from an FWR perspective. I was talking about the pottery community/ programme fans in general. Anyway I don’t mind Rose on the programme as Rose is doing Rich’s old job before Rich got promoted from negotiating with the kiln gods to presenter. I could watch that man at the wheel all night long. His long delicate fingers. <fans self> I live for the episodes where he demonstrates the throw down challenge, otherwise I have to make do with the opening titles.

Reminds me of the Victoria Wood 'Mia Farrow selecting children in the style of Countdown' clip.

' Rose ' was making vile comments on X regarding a vulnerable sick woman who refused to have a trans male looking after her. He quickly retracted the vile comments but I'm sure there's screenshots out there...
How he's still on TGPTD I don't know

@ThreeWordHarpy : So I fully support the idea of showing that sewing can be for everyone, I just wish Love Productions didn’t appear to have a casting list with established “types” that appear every year.
So true. It seems it is the same clicheed types every year now. I remember years ago, they had a man who was a lieutenant-colonel in the Army, who just did his thing with the sewing machine without being either gay, a drag artist or a gendered person. I think he either won or came second.

Oh yes, I recall he did so well at making a kilt that Patrick said he’d love to wear it. Made lots of frocks for his wife.

i think his military training meant he had similar skills to the doctors that do so well - organised, attention to detail, coped well under pressure.

Exactly this. It's not really about sewing any more.

See also Mastermind, which now has to have a 2 minute chat at the end with the winner. Just answer the questions and fuck off.

There, got that off my chest

True. The painted canvas into a garment challenge was quite bonkers.

I had some sewing lessons from a lovely lady who says she always gets an uptick in enquiries when Sewing Bee is broadcast, but winces at the sewing practices shown. A lot of her lessons involved “don’t do it like they do it on the telly, do it like this”. She showed me a really good, foolproof way of inserting an invisible zip. However it involves a few extra steps that the contestants obviously don’t have time for, so they go for the short cuts and hope they come off. It might be better telly but it’s rubbish if you want to learn anything about sewing (or cooking or genealogy etc).

her approach was, learn the old fashioned proper way to do things, like pinning AND tacking before sewing, because there’s a better chance of it working first time and it is not fun spending sewing time unpicking stuff that’s gone wrong. Then when you’re more experienced you can develop your own short cuts depending on what you’re good at.

Oh yes. As a trained pattern and clothing maker, I cannot tell you how often I've chuntered at the telly. "What do you mean, you've never put in a fecking zip???"

I think their ability to handle pressure is awesome, but the sewing is frankly mostly poor, mainly because of the stupid timescales I expect.