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…

I agree OP and even before the contestants were announced, I knew there would be a drag artist. I get the point of diversity, but having sewed for the past 40 years, I can tell you that at least 80% of the people I meet in my local fabric shop and haberdashers, are middle aged or elderly women. For once it would be nice if this was acknowledged. I'm not suggesting that the line up is purely this demographic but why oh why does every programme of this type have to be a carbon copy ticklist.

I'll still be watching because I enjoy it but as a pp mentioned it is definitely not 12 of the country's "best amateur sewers" - I seem to remember one bloke saying that he'd never made a dress! To me that is like going on Bake Off and saying you'd never made a cake! It always amazes me that people have the nerve/confidence (depending on your pov) to apply for things when their knowledge is so limited. I guess it works though or we wouldn't keep watching it.

Why don't they give the contestants a bit longer in the challenges, especially the final garment.

The denim skirt challenge was a mess. Give the contestants more time in the final challenge too, so they can produce proper finished garments, and show the judges exactly what they can do.

I agree. The timings for the pattern challenge should be set so that the best sewers at least will finish the garment to a high standard, and most of everyone else will finish but to a lower standard. The fact that none of them produced a finished skirt of a reasonable standard means they badly underestimated the time needed.

The other two challenges were good. Might have been kind to give them access to overlockers for the t shirts though

The timings of the challenges mean that most of the contestants just waste material. But i think the audience like looking at something brilliant, or something dreadful but not a load of okay items. The best sewer/baker/potter can meet the time, the rest are producing something we all think we could do better than.

I was also struck by the low standard of garments produced in the pattern challenge. It looked as if Esme and Patrick were too. I don't think it was all down to lack of time as I got the impression that many (even most) of the contestants were struggling with basic pattern comprehension and basic - albeit tricky - skills. And no I'm not great either at top stitching and zips which is why I wouldn't dream of putting myself forward for a competition, let alone a televised one.

Do I think it was a coincidence that the young woman who won the other 2 challenges came last in the pattern one? No.

I didn't watch the show 10 years ago but I'm wondering if, in order to attract ( and also not humiliate) a wider demographic, they're having to rejig the challenges to favour creativity and risk taking over solid sewing skills, and whether the group losing out are the older women who were taught sewing in school?

Rose from TGPTD has made some absolutely vile comments on SM, particularly to lesbian organisations because Rose is one of those new-fangled male lesbians. Misogyny writ large in that one.

All of the reality talent shows (Bake Off et al) want a diverse demographic to make it easy to tell contenstants apart, have different back stories and have people to root for. I know two people who made it to the final castings of these programmes and both weren't selected as there was someone else who fit their demographic in the mix. One was specifically told she'd have been picked in a different year. THat's just telly, I guess.

I too had the impression that the sewing skills are sadly lacking. However as Patrick said that an A line skirt featured in the first ever programme, I checked it out. It turns out that it was a significantly easier pattern - front, back, zip, hem, that's it. Buttonholes and topstitching take forever so to do this year's skirt in the same time is a significantly harder challenge. Patrick and Esme must be well aware of this and I wonder why they've chosen to do it. Or perhaps they've been overriden by the producers.

Oh that's interesting @MontyDonsBlueScarf.

I haven’t watched sewing bee, but had to stop watching pottery throwdown as I found it so frustrating. Much is not done properly and imo would not be usable due to slapdash step-skipping. Lots of people have turned up at the studio I occasionally use with very mistaken ideas of how quickly something can be made. The instructors and technicians have to handle very disappointed people, like the sewing teacher above. More time on the process and less time on the backgrounds of contestants would be more interesting for me. I couldn’t really care less about some random’s dead grandmother or sexual preferences.

I suspect a lot of the patterns used and fabric provided have been donated by suppliers, so you may find their hands are sort of tied.
I can't even be bothered to watch this year.

As there's no doctor, surely the architect will win?

Esme has said in an interview that she is able to do all the challenges in the time.

However I think she forgets that she is a professional fashion and sewing tutor, who has worked her whole life in fashion. While the contestants all have other unrelated day jobs. And aren't selected to be the best at sewing but to tick the production company's casting criteria and be good on telly.

@illinivich - I agree about the waste and find it somewhat ironic given how much they bang on about sustainability (rightly so imho bearing in mind the impact of clothing industry on the planet).

It seems somewhat laughable to have them create 12 unwearable skirts from denim (a very carbon heavy material), when given another 20-30 minutes they would have been wearable. I still think it would be possible to judge and some would be better than others, in the spirit of the competition.

I don't watch the sewing/pottery/baking programmes, but your comment reminded me of an episode of The Apprentice a few years ago, where they had to make pizzas, and one team ended up ordering enough chickens to put 1/2 a chicken on every chicken pizza! There was another episode where a contestant was trying to sell double glazing, and came up with a quote of several thousand for one window, due to mismeasuring it as, say 10m x 20m (I forget the exact details). I hope these are not the brightest and best that this country has to offer!

I was also struck by the low standard of garments produced in the pattern challenge.

It was shocking wasn't it? Not one person finished which I think is a first in Sewing Bee.

Thanks for starting thread, @ThreeWordHarpy . I'd heard about the "they/them" and my heart sank again. Dr Who has been destroyed by this sort of nonsense, I just can't bear to watch it and be lectured and I don't want it infecting my other favourite programmes, too. On Pottery Throwdown I was singularly unimpressed with Rose's revolting comments on sm. I don't care what he wears as long as he keeps out of the women's toilets and changing rooms.

As for last night's first challenge, blimey it was grim. I've never seen no-one finish a garment so I reckon they should have had another half hour so that was the programme's failure not the contestants. The woman who came (quite rightly) last admitted she tended to cut corners and was slapdash so I was surprised to see some great design from her later (her final garment was very clever and effective). However, that won't be enough as the weeks go by. I have a couple of seamstress friends who can beautifully alter and create stunning pieces but not in such a quick timeframe. I really do take my hat off to the contestants, the stress of being filmed and using strange equipment (not their own) plus the time limits must make everything harder.

which one is the architect? I’m not sure that as a profession they’re used to performing under extreme time pressure like doctors and military folk. I think that’s as key to sewing bee success as the good planning and attention to detail.

Comfort.

Getting to be an architect as a person of colour does suggest a rather steely personality. Besides, she got closer to finishing than most of them.

It still unsettles me to think that the winner of Sewing Bee 2024 will quite possibly be someone who doesn't know how to top stitch.

Yes, it's a TV show and entertainment is the priority. And I really do think it's great that it can reach people who had never thought sewing was for them. But yet again it's the devaluing of skills that are predominantly held by older women that depresses me.

I do hope that Esme can hold the line for standards, and that Patrick is watching her back.

It's not about sewing though. It was, at one time, but now it's a novelty show with "wacky and quirky" participants who tick diversity boxes. The cast are invariably sweet natured, often funny, sometimes creative and have some skills, but excellent sew-ers they are not. Even if they were, they don't have time to be. Nor are they professional sewists, so their homemade stuff can be as rough as they like. Nobody's paying them to make the skirt, so why worry about neat seam finishes and accurate cutting? It's very slapdash, because most home sewing is. Why go to all the trouble of binding seams when you want the dress finished for dancing tomorrow night?
Like most skills, there are levels of accomplishment. These guys are usually on the lower steps. It's truly a delight when someone like Claire, who won a few years ago (surgeon, I think? 40s afficianado) comes along with traditional skills.

I'm still not watching.

Oh yeah my home sewing is appallingly lazy and slapdash, which is precisely why I have no interest in seeing it replicated on TV.

Plus Esme and Patrick - but Esme in particular from what I've seen - have up until now been very much about neat finishing and accurate cutting, so if there's going to be no place for that any more then I fear for them too.

Its interesting that you say that about home sewing @CocoapuffPuff and precisely why going on the Sewing Bee would be my idea of hell. My sewing is anything but slapdash as I enjoy taking my time and have quite exacting standards. If my dress wasn't finished then I would wear something else. Am in the process of finishing my daughter's prom dress which I have been working on since Xmas. Four toiles later I am fairly pleased with it although can still see places where the finish is not perfect. No one else can spot these though and my daughter is delighted with it (which is the main thing).

I agree that it's not so much about the sewing anymore but more the creativity which is also important as it would be pretty boring if they just churned out perfectly sewn but boring garments. It's a fine balance I think.

Is this downplaying of the basic skills happening on other similar shows too? How far would you get on Masterchef for example, without knowing how to make a shortcrust pastry or a roux sauce?

I wish they had gone with another comic as co-presenter rather than an actor, it seems a bit flat without the corny jokes (although I’m only 20 mins in). Maybe I will grow to love him though, I didn’t like Sara Pascoe at first either and she grew on me.

That has made me realise that they don't do the name the ingredient test on Masterchef anymore. I used to be quite shocked at the lack of knowledge in some of the contestants and I'm not a foody by any stretch of the imagination.

Back to the Sewing Bee - I found this episode really quite boring, I'd been looking forward to it.