🪡 Sewing Bee 🪡

I know Caz had been through so much but I now think that Orla should have won.

Reported

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202509/medium-dl6igy-furstenberg.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202509/medium-5o2csx-screenshot-2025-09-18-at-09-19-56.png

Had I been given the trompe l’œil brief I would have been researching how the fashion world has depicted illusion - as opposed to 3D shapes. There is plenty of easily accessible inspiration on Pinterest. There is also E L Gombrich’s classic book on art and illusion.

This Life Science website has lots of illusion images that could have been replicated with fabric: the Kanizsa square, White’s Illusion, Curvature Blindness, Cafe Wall as well as the classic Rubin’s vase.

www.livescience.com/health/mind/32-optical-illusions-and-why-they-trick-your-brain

I like ths Diane Von Furstenberg dress which looks like a mash-up of Rubin’s vase but with thick graph lines similar to Keith Haring’s pop art.

Illusions can be created fairly easily with block-quilting techniques. I like this tumbling blocks dress. You wouldn’t be able to create the fabric in the time but there have been occasions when contestants have been able to bring in pre-prepared materials. The dress looks like it has some boning in the bodice and spaghetti straps which the judges seem to like. I also like how the pale diamonds on the bodice create a masked face or square breasts(!) and a cleavage depending on how you look at it. Trick of the eye.

Millie22

The two in one dress that Asmaa created for the final of that series was incredible.

I think Kit would have excelled in the final this year.

Yes, it was, just beautiful.

The standard that year was very high.

The pictured dress is by FarFetch just in case anyone fancied it for a Christmas party

PaynesGrey

I have been disappointed with this series and I was disappointed with the final three garments.

They didnt seem (to me) to be trompe l’œil in the sense of creating an illusion that tricked the eye, not compared to what we were shown from the professional catwalks and red carpet.

Caz’s was clever structurally but where was the trick? Orla’s simply didn’t work. You can’t stick swimming pool noodles on a moving object and expect them not to be seen. And what was it an illusion of? Yasmin’s was a dress with something struck to the front that was meant to resemble a tie.

Perhaps it was because the concepts has to be explained to us. There was no element of surprise, no trick.

If you do an internet search on trompe l’œil fashion it isn’t what they made. A lot of trompe l’œil fashion has the illusion printed onto the fabric. In the past, we have seen contestants use their own designs printed on fabric but if that is beyond their scope, they could have replicated it with appliqué techniques. I think we’ve seen more inadvertent trompe l’œil in the transformation round than we saw in this final.

I felt it was all a bit bland and why I'd wanted to see Kit there. I think we would have seen something much more inventive from him.

I agree about the illusion being in the fabric.

I did rather like the idea of ripping the stomach open. A plain dress with the illusion of the middle being exposed to an applique of intestines.

I would like to see Contestants given more than enough time to complete their garments so that we can see their sewing skills.
They are constantly interrupted by the Judges and Sarah and have to talk to camera as they work.
If not, it could be renamed “The Fastest Sewing Bee”.
The final 3 were all creative and accomplished with sewing techniques.

Its like football. You are only as good as your last game. The contestants were judged each week on what they produced that week. How well you did in previous weeks is irrelevant.

Caz is apparently actually a Catherine.

In my opinion she did deserve to win last night, but she wasn’t consistent through the series, so I’d have preferred Orla, who was, and generally made more wearable clothes.

Yes you could be right.

Unfortunately the name Karen has taken on a new meaning. Caz is a nice name anyway.

Allira

^And the brief was just plain silly to start with!^

Yes, I agree. It was as if they are always trying to think of new tasks for the contestants, each more outlandish than the last.

Orla's didn't work, simply because any movement as the model walked down the catwalk would spoil any illusion. I envied the model's flexibility bending backwards, though!

I didn't really get Yasmin's, lovely though it was.

So Caz's was a clear winner imo. She won one of the other briefs too.

I bet her real name is Caroline or Carol 😂
Not sure why that is funny. I know other people who shorten their names too!

I know two people called Caz, both of whom were christened Karen

The two in one dress that Asmaa created for the final of that series was incredible.

I think Kit would have excelled in the final this year.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202509/medium-fualsb-screenshot-2025-09-17-at-12-36-35.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202509/medium-giizln-screenshot-2025-09-17-at-12-37-28.png

I don’t think it was a silly challenge but one that did need more careful thought about how to design and make a garment that would fit the brief.

Trompe l’œil has featured in fashion collections on and off for a hundred years. Elsa Schiaparelli’s first trompe l’œil motif on a hand-knit sweater in 1927. Jean Gautier’s torso top from 1995.

It was just that the contestants had a different take on it which didn’t (imo) work.

No matter. It always comes down to whoever produces the best garment in the final challenge of the final and this year is was definitely Caz.

I am hankering after past finals. Ann’s exquisitely sewn lace overlay dress from series one, Heather’s also exquisitely sewn red and black equestrian gown from series two and Asmaa’s two in one dress from series nine. All stand out in my memory. I loved how Asmaa’s dress unfurled as her model came down the catwalk.

And the brief was just plain silly to start with!

Yes, I agree. It was as if they are always trying to think of new tasks for the contestants, each more outlandish than the last.

Orla's didn't work, simply because any movement as the model walked down the catwalk would spoil any illusion. I envied the model's flexibility bending backwards, though!

I didn't really get Yasmin's, lovely though it was.

So Caz's was a clear winner imo. She won one of the other briefs too.

I bet her real name is Caroline or Carol 😂
Not sure why that is funny. I know other people who shorten their names too!

Won ... not wont

There was no optical illusion element in Caz's garment at all. Well executed but no reason it should have win as it did not meet the brief. The other 2 garments had nothing at all to commend them. And the brief was just plain silly to start with!
But the right person won't overall.

I have been disappointed with this series and I was disappointed with the final three garments.

They didnt seem (to me) to be trompe l’œil in the sense of creating an illusion that tricked the eye, not compared to what we were shown from the professional catwalks and red carpet.

Caz’s was clever structurally but where was the trick? Orla’s simply didn’t work. You can’t stick swimming pool noodles on a moving object and expect them not to be seen. And what was it an illusion of? Yasmin’s was a dress with something struck to the front that was meant to resemble a tie.

Perhaps it was because the concepts has to be explained to us. There was no element of surprise, no trick.

If you do an internet search on trompe l’œil fashion it isn’t what they made. A lot of trompe l’œil fashion has the illusion printed onto the fabric. In the past, we have seen contestants use their own designs printed on fabric but if that is beyond their scope, they could have replicated it with appliqué techniques. I think we’ve seen more inadvertent trompe l’œil in the transformation round than we saw in this final.

I felt it was all a bit bland and why I'd wanted to see Kit there. I think we would have seen something much more inventive from him.

Well done to the three finalists. I really don't know how they could produce such wonderful work in such a short time and with the cameras hovering over them all the time.

It was a difficult brief and I thought that Orla had the only design that met it and that Caz produced more of a fancy dress costume. However, she was an excellent sewer and very artistic so well done her for winning.

Beechnut

Luckygirl3

I would love it if these programmes scrapped the knock-out element and we were just allowed to see the sewers grow in skill week by week. Then let the judges choose who has made the most progress at the end and give them a prize. It would feel so much more constructive.

That’s an idea Lucky. I’d be interested to see how that would go.

I am afraid it woiuld make very dull viewing. the purpose of tv is to entertain,subject matter is subservient to entertainment most viewers are casual viewers who would just not bother to stay tuned in, it is thecompetitive element they enjoy.

I am an amateur archaeoogist and when Time Team was running those involved in archaeology used to complain about the dig in three days format and all the ramping up of beating the time limit and so on. Then there was a one off programme about a real dig taking place over several weeks. It was the dullest of programmes, no excitement to it. Lots of brown trenches, plouged fields and archaeologists, in dull practical clothes, with the director being cauious about every find' it could be medieval, but ti could be Roman, we will have let the experts see it' On real digs specialists are not to hand and they take weeks to consult.

Theprogramme was so boring, even I turned it off. Iam afraid Sewing Bee with out the pressure, would be of interest to those of us who sew or have an interest in textiles, but not to the majority of viewrs who do not.

I was disappointed that Orla didn't win. I agree that the sob story was perhaps a deciding factor in the decision to give Caz the trophy, however her outfit was better executed than Orla's.

Caz's story about her heart surgery tipped the scales in her favour.

Trompe - artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface
Beautifully presented and sewn as it was, I don't see how Caz's met the brief

That ribcage dress was ambitious and so well done. It almost looked wearable! 😂🤣😅