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 live near a university which has a thriving fashion department, so my local cheap fabric shop has lots of young people in it. It's the same when I go into central London, fabric and haberdashery shops have a lot of younger people I'm them. The thing that snnoys me about Sewing Bee is the lack of finishing garments off properly. Wonderful comment about Esme and and Patrick, I won't be able to unsee it either!

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?

speak for yourself. Most of my home sewing is to a very high standard - french seams, properly inserted zips - pressed seams to within an inch of their lives. At (boarding) school it was usually about speed. I'd buy fabric in town on Saturday morning, sew an outfit saturday afternoon and wear it to the pub or a house party that evening. But None of those really stood the test of time. The box pleated skirt i made in 1990? lasted until at least 2010 when i finally stopped wearing it because i got too fat.

I line things that would look better with lining, and have been known - as in the best French couture houses - to sew zips in by hand.

I actually wish they'd dump the stupid "turn an umbrella into swimwear" middle challenge and give them more time on the first pattern.

I prefer how it was very very early on: make this crew neck t-shirt into a v-neck, or these trousers into shorts since the knees are out, and so on. Those are real skills. Patching, reparing - make do and mend type of stuff. Younger people are really into that if YouTube/TikTok is anything to go by, and it feeds into the sustainability aspect they half-heartedly try to push.

And you therefore aren't the demographic I was talking about now, are you?

This is what I'd like, too. Replace a broken zip. Surely that's more "save the planet" than turning usable curtains into unwearable kagouls?

We're getting into repair shop meets sewing bee spin-off territory now

I have a vintage tailored jacket that I would love to have restored..great sentimental value.

Ooh I'd watch that show. I love the repair shop.

I'd love a show that too. I try and check out Repair Shop every week in case there are any clothes featured, (like the Mr Freedom shoes). And it would be great to see some older women showing off their skills.

i think if you can sew a bit and you understand garment construction - and are prepared to accept that it will a) probably not be perfect and b) take 3 times longer than you thought it would - a lot of clothing repairs are quite straightforward. I've started paying a lot more attention and investing a lot more time on repairs and maintenance of our clothes these days over binning them and replacing. It has been fun. And you can be a bit creative and have fun with it.

Learning how to turn a cuff would be a useful skill. I started buying short sleeve shirts for my boys because their cuffs got in such a state

I’d quite like a Sewing Bee: An Extra Stitch spin off show, like the bake off extra slice. They could show all sorts of sewing and textile related things that don’t fit the Sewing Bee entertainment remit, to satisfy those of us who want to watch the sewing and who would be quite happy to watch a bunch of middle aged women try their best to make a perfect garment! They could have other people (past contestants?) doing the challenges, taking people through the patterns, hints and tips and how tos.

I also watched in increasing dismay. I can’t recall such a disastrous first round, and the made-to-measure was a very mixed bag (although some had promise, I don’t think any were that great, and some were shocking). And I wish they’d ditch the awful ‘transformation round' - it’s really cringe-making now.

Just thinking back to the very first series, which was won by Ann - she’d been sewing for 75 years when she won and her work was exquisite. But most of the other contestants, though years younger and less experienced, were also very good. No wacky enbees or ventriloquists' dummies to be seen. Just decent sewing. But not exciting enough now…..

But not exciting enough now…..

Television production companies are turning us into easily bored and unsatisfied watchers by showing constant so called excitement.

I'd like to see something like this https://www.collingwoodnorrisdesign.com/ and other makes that aren't always clothes.

Surely they must know from the success of Repair Shop that there is an audience that enjoys watching serious, highly skilled people practise their craft, without crazy deadlines or entertainers wandering around asking stupid questions and cracking bad jokes?

Would be interesting to see a couturier make a garment from start to finish?

Ever seen 'Mrs Harris goes to Paris?'

There was a wonderful documentary about the creation of the forces ceremonial dress uniforms for the coronation on bbc last year. Hosted by Patrick grant. It's more or less one company that does it all, and one of two people who hold the secrets. It'll be on BBC catch up I'd imagine. Fascinating

Yes, the range of skills on show was fantastic. The old guy that handshaped the helmets, must be the only person alive able to do that.

That was an amazing show.

I could watch something like that every night.

Yes it was fantastic.

Maybe it's because I'm a bodger and a 'that'll do' kind of sewer myself that I love watching and listening to people who do things properly.

I just hope those skills get handed down.

It would be interesting to watch a ‘professionals’ version of the Sewing Bee.

It's why I've always enjoyed shows like Project Runway and Next in Fashion a bit more. The participants are actually either already working for someone else, running their own business already or newly graduated students. It's really interesting hearing how everyone got into the business and what they plan to do with it if they win the money. I realise GBSB is a totally different programme and I feel I've probably been quite unfair to the competitors - they're MEANT to be amateurs. I just wish the challenges were fairer, with longer timescales and that the middle one was just thrown in the bin. It's portrayed as a sewing competition but doesn't give them enough time to sew PROPERLY. That's what cheeses me off. Having taught many people to sew, it's clear that speed is not everything. In fact, sewing for yourself should involve NO speed at all if the result is to be decent. Chuck a fancy dress outfit together, by all means, but making a coat that you'd hopefully wear for many years should not be rushed. I hate the rush. Those poor competitors have to rush rush rush and it's not conducive to a decent finish. One or two might manage it, but that doesn't make them the best sewers. It makes them the fastest. I didn't think it was a sprint race...

Thinking back to the middle challenge, I remember things like altering a skirt where they put on pockets and appliqué. Which it was more of that sort of thing - actual practical tasks - an amateur sewer might do. Taking a dated or ill-fitting item of clothing and modernising it or correcting the fit.

That denim skirt should have been a straightforward make. It's just straight lines. However for a start off they needed better quality machines that would handle denim, and obviously more time. I'm an experienced home sewer and it would have taken me at least one full day to make that. It's surprising to me that so few of the contestants can follow a pattern, that seems pretty basic and even if you don't generally do it, you'd think that they would have learned it before the show started. Likewise buttonholes, I don't think that there was a single wearable garment of the 36 made. I don't really care much about the contestants private lives but I do think they should be able to sew reasonably well

The machines are fine! They have the same one I have, and I've made loads of different kinds of things on it - including jeans (topstitching a-plenty), denim skirts, coats, denim jackets, and more delicate stuff too.

The machines are definitely not at fault here!

It was straightforward to cut out (on a very stable fabric) - not many pieces, and no fiddly small ones in awkward shapes, only 8 straightforward seams, no finishing of seams, long straight lines of top stitching (again, nothing fiddly, and not having to line up 2 rows, or topstitch over lumpy seams), and that machine does buttonholes on denim without any issue. The construction was so straightforward - nothing really to figure out, and no jeopardy of attaching the wrong piece in the wrong place/backwards/upside-down etc. I have no idea why they all made such a mess of it.

I wouldn't have expected 12 perfect skirts in the time, but for none of them to even come close is really bad.

For sure, it was awful, it was a really simple pattern