10 February 2015
Yippee! The Great British Sewing Bee is back in all it’s glory! It’s series 3 and I was wondering how they were going to make it more difficult and/or find better sewers than series 2. Well there’s certainly some very competent sewers this time round and I can’t wait to see how they all get on!
You’ve got 7 minutes sewers!
If you’re a sewer, have you ever asked yourself “I wonder how I would get on making that item of clothing in the time frame they’ve been given?”
I thought so!
Has anyone tried it at home? If you have I’d love to hear how you got on.
I’m quite tempted to have a go at the first challenge of series 3 – a pair of women’s cotton trousers in 3 hours.
Once I started thinking about it I realised that the sewers must have been given a pattern which fitted their mannequins exactly as no mention was made about fitting and all the finished trousers fitted very well. Hmm, so if I was going to try the challenge I’d either have to do some preparation work on fitting the pattern to my body or buy a mannequin to make the trousers for! Since I don’t see the point in wasting time and fabric on a pair of trousers I wouldn’t be able to wear, I guess I’d have to do some fitting before starting my timer.
Funnily enough the new edition of Sew Magazine arrived through my door yesterday and the free pattern was New Look 6217 (pictured below) and it contains a pattern for some slim women’s trousers with side zip, suggested fabric cotton (among other things). Is Sew Magazine trying to convince me to go for it as well?
New Look 6217 – free with this month’s Sew Magazine
HOWEVER, if I did take up the challenge, what would it prove? I’ll never set myself time limits when I sew anything else and I’m not in training for next year’s Sewing Bee, so why bother?
I guess it would give me more of an appreciation of what is being asked of the contestants. Of course they have the judges and Claudia harassing them, but I’d have the housework calling to me, the phone to answer and facebook tempting me away from the task at hand (oh, and coffee to make and drink, etc.)
Oh, and while we’re on the subject of challenges, I’ve joined the 2015 Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge!
What is it? Well you decide what you are going to sew this year from your vintage sewing patterns. You could decide to sew up 4 garments this year from vintage patterns (which is what I pledged) or you could say you will sew an item from each decade from the 1940’s to the 1970’s, or whatever works for you really. I think it’s a great idea and you share pictures of what you’ve made and swoon over the things other people have sewn up. Read more about it here.