Review: "The Great British Sewing Bee"

A friend turned me on to this reality show on sewing by posting the first episode on Facebook.

My favorite thing is that I end up smiling through much of it. I like all the contestants (even if one is turning out to be Wesley Crusher) because they all have such good attitudes. They are all excited to be on the show and they mostly react to their difficulties by laughing at their mistakes. They do not talk about how they are better than everyone, in spite of all the evidence--they all can see where they stand compared to the others and are wonderfully modest. It's only at the end of the show where they get stressed out from not having enough time that I stop smiling so much. Of course even then they still have UK accents, which I enjoy.

After watching two episodes, it looks like the contestants get three challenges every weekend (each episode is two days). The first challenge is to make something from a pattern (they all use the same pattern but can pick out their own fabrics and embellishments). The second is to make some sort of change to a ready-made garment (they all get the same garment). And the third is to make a specific type of garment (the first episode's was "a casual dress") for a specific person. They are each given their own model. And they can pick out their own pattern, fabrics, etc. ahead of time. And the judges explain some of the challenges for each assignment.

These are enough tasks to give everyone a real challenge. It's tempting to think that if even these guys have trouble with some of the tasks, why would I ever sew? But the thing about even these guys is that they've actually specialized a bit. So people who've made clothes only for girls have to make men's trousers. The guy who's made mostly only historical period clothes has to put in zippers.

Besides giving three challenges to each contestant, each episode also shows how to making something simple. And shows you a technique for doing something. And they share something historical. At the end of the episode, the judges pick a favorite garment of the episode.

The bad part is that there are time constraints, there is judging, and they kick two people off every show (except, I assume, in the last show of the series, where they probably just declare a winner). That means we'll get to see the creativity of fewer and fewer people in each episode. At least the judges don't make me angry. They don't point out enough of the good things, but they also don't make wacky judgements that don't make any sense. And they're mostly not obnoxious like on American reality shows.

The Cast

Hostess
* Claudia Winkleman

Judges
* Patrick Grant, a tailor from Saville Row
* May Martin, a sewing instructor from the Women's Institute

Contestants
* Sandra (aka the flower lover) - made clothes for her kids; her mom and grandma were also sewers
* Stuart - started by making things for his house--curtains, cushions, a quilt
* Ann - started with doll clothes and moved into making clothes for herself
* Tilly - started sewing two years ago and has been making clothes for herself including making her own patterns.
* Jane - makes her own clothes so she can have unique things to wear
* Michelle - grandma and mother made everything and now she follows the tradition and sews for her family
* Mark - makes 18th-century steampunk costumes, mostly for himself
* Lauren - started with a sewing kit as a kid

Season one is complete, season two is starting in a couple of days, and there was also some sort of Christmas special.

Review: "The Great British Sewing Bee," Season 1, Episode 1

Why yes, I am going to review each episode I see. There's so much in them!

The three challenges from episode one were:
* to make an A-line skirt from a pattern
* to alter the collar of a ready-made blouse, and
* to make a casual dress to fit a specific real person

Here are some of the topics covered:
* what an A-line skirt is and what some of the challenges in making one are
* some techniques for making a 2-dimensional fabric fit a 3-dimensional person
* bias binding
* broderie anglaise - what it is (sort of); not how to make it
* how to make a border in a contrasting fabric
* how to measure the bustline
* that silk is hard to work with because it stretches easily (and then stays stretched out in the new, unplanned shape)
* that sewing different types of fabric together is problematic
* pattern matching - what it is, not how to do it
* that you're asking for trouble if you don't try to physically fit the pattern to the person before you start cutting the fabric

The how-to lesson was on making a laundry bag with two drawstrings - and you get to see a bias-binding maker.

The history lesson was on how patterns are a recent development; Samuel Beaton published the first pull-out paper dress-making pattern in 1863, making it easier for people sewing at home.

I learned from Georgette Heyer novels that (upper-class) people would bring pictures of outfits they wanted to their tailors. To save money, you might buy the fabric yourself and bring it in to your tailor. And if you liked someone's hat or coat, you didn't ask for the pattern; you asked who made it. Some people did make and re-make their own dresses. And although Heyer and Jane Austin say that women were supposed to do loads of sewing, I think lots of it was embroidered embellishments rather than making things from scratch.

Here are some quotes I enjoyed:

"Totally out of my comfort zone again!" - Mark

"I might have been at the top of the last challenge, but I'll think I'll be at the bottom of this one!" - Sandra

"It's a bit of a disaster, and I've lost one of the collar pieces as well." - Tilly

"I'm adding a little gathered rose to the front of the neck, but my hands are very sweaty, so it's a little difficult to pull a needle through." - Stuart

"I've probably just made the same mistake twice." - Tilly(?)

After trying to fix a mistake - "I don't think it looks right. I think it looks a bit ridiculous. But it will give everyone something to smile about, won't it?" - Sandra

Evil, but catchy - "It's good from afar, but far from good." - Patrick

"The last thing you want to do when you're hand-stitching is panic." - Tilly

"Overall, I'm really proud of myself that I finished a dress in seven hours; I've never done that before. And it doesn't look too bad." - Tilly

"I've never made a dress before, so I've not done bad." - Mark

"I think I should just call myself the polyester girl because I'm never going to work with silk ever again because it's been a nightmare." - Michelle