Sewing Bee 2026

Some of us have had personal experience of The Dog House too! 🐶 🐕

We do disagree a lot MawsRosie 🤣

MawsRosie

^I wondered why I had never heard of 'The Dog House' then I discovered it was all about dogs. It is not necessarily obvious^

Hmm - I wonder what else it might have been about? Gardening? Sport? Music?

Someone being 'in the dog house' is a popular phrase for someone who is in trouble in a domestic space for doing something that another person is unhappy about.

A programme called 'The Dog House' could easily be a domestic sitcom. I have never heard of it. How was I to know?

I've done a great deal of sewing in the past but now I'm happy to watch other people being creative. My money is on Anna to win, but it really isn't over till it's over. It only needs one thing to go wrong.

I wondered why I had never heard of 'The Dog House' then I discovered it was all about dogs. It is not necessarily obvious

Hmm - I wonder what else it might have been about? Gardening? Sport? Music?

There's critiquing and there's mocking amd dismissing which happens when a phrase is enclosed in speech marks as in ‘educational informative and entertaining programmes’ , and there's also being effectively told to jog on best you don't watch it effectively shutting down any discussion.

specki4eyes

MawsRosie thank you for defending my right to an opinion. I would love to learn more about garment creation. I'm 80 but don't want ever to stop learning!
Gransnet responses to OPs often come across as snarky and snappy which must put those, more sensitive than me, off offering an opinion.
You and I remember when GN was such a forum.

But, as you yourself say, specki4eyes you have a right to an opinion. No one would disagree with that. But so does anyone who disagrees with your opinion, also have a right to express their views, and providing they do that in a courteous manner, it is surely what you expect when you join a discussion forum like GN.

How do you have a discussion if people cannot put forward opposing views? In my time on GN and in life generally I have learnt a lot from listening to/reading the views of people whose views, at least initially, I disagree with. Sometimes they have changed my opinions

Critiquing someone's views, is about their views, not about them as individuals.

Both types of programme have their place.

It's rather like comparing The Big Painting Challenge with The Joy of Painting or Awash with Colour.

Different concepts, possibly different audiences, although some viewers may watch both types of programme.

MawsRosie thank you for defending my right to an opinion. I would love to learn more about garment creation. I'm 80 but don't want ever to stop learning!
Gransnet responses to OPs often come across as snarky and snappy which must put those, more sensitive than me, off offering an opinion.
You and I remember when GN was such a forum.

BlueBelle

I take it you don’t like it then Specki4eyes ! best you don’t watch it and leave it to those of us who do enjoy it then you can stick to your ‘educational informative and entertaining programmes’ good job they are around for you
🥱

This doesn’t invalidate specki4eyes ‘opinion though does it?
GN is a discussion forum, not an echo chamber and without differences of opinion, there can be no discussion.

(Why knock/mock educational, informative and entertaining tv programmes just because they are not to your taste? )

I agree with M0nica.

Programmes such as The Sewing Bee, Masterchef (we rarely watch that) are pure entertainment and they do stretch the boundaries. The time constrictions are part of the concept, in an educational craft programme there would be no competitive time limits.

We don't need to learn how to make garments from eg supermarket bags because we're never going to do that but it is funny and often surprising to see the results.

It's a competition, not an educational programme.

specki4eyes

I run a needlecraft group and we are all of the same mind about this show. We learn nothing from it; none of us would be seen dead in any of the garments they make; the camerawork and musak are positively schizophrenic and as for the so called pointless comedienne...she's so unfunny she makes us want to cry.
If only the BBC would take a lesson from Sky Arts and create some craft programmes that are educational, informative and entertaining.

Yes, but. Do all the worthy sewing programmes on Sky Arts get as many viewers as the Sewing Bee? Are they as entertaining?

You and your group are also watching the progamme from a pedagogical view, not an entertainment view. Would you watch Masterchef in order to learn to cook or Top Gear if you wanted to learn to drive? I doubt it The Sky programmes and Sewing Bee are doing 2 entirely different things, and you cannot compare them.

Sewing Bee has changed and adapted over the years to meet its audience and increase the number of viewers. To begin with its aim was to star the country's best home sewers but after the first couple of years, sewers were queuing to be on it, but the better the sewers, the harder the tasks got so that the contestants had very little time to interact with the camera and compere and the finished garments, although often technical masterpieces were very uninteresting.

So, I seem to remember, the programme had a year off and came back with the concentration on having a diverse range of contestants, even though their sewing skills, though excellent were not necessarily professional level. Personally, I think it makes for a much more entertaining prgramme

As for the clothes they make, if none of your class would wear any of the clothes made on the programme, what on earth do they wear? The range of clothes that have been made over the programmed is wide and diverse, I would agree that the makeover round is pretty dire. It has only once in my memory produced a wearable garment.

But both the pattern round and final round often produce very wearable clothes. In my time I would have undoubtedly have worn some of the Regency heroine dresses made last week. In fact I have a photograph of myself at my graduation ball some 60 years ago wearing a long evening dress very similar to most of those on show last week, which I had made myself.

I take it you don’t like it then Specki4eyes ! best you don’t watch it and leave it to those of us who do enjoy it then you can stick to your ‘educational informative and entertaining programmes’ good job they are around for you
🥱

I run a needlecraft group and we are all of the same mind about this show. We learn nothing from it; none of us would be seen dead in any of the garments they make; the camerawork and musak are positively schizophrenic and as for the so called pointless comedienne...she's so unfunny she makes us want to cry.
If only the BBC would take a lesson from Sky Arts and create some craft programmes that are educational, informative and entertaining.

Gingster

What don’t I get about this programme. I tried again last night to see if I would enjoy it more.
It’s soooo boring 🥱. The things they make are awful. Patrick loves himself, and Esme 😤.well, no comment and the new presenter , no better than the ones that went before. Why is she there!
I lasted 10 minutes and turned over for The Dog House.

I wondered why I had never heard of 'The Dog House' then I discovered it was all about dogs. It is not necessarily obvious.

All that schmalz and cheap emotion.

I too found it hard to take to Rebecca ... I felt I was being lectured at!
But she is a good seamstress ... just did not come out on top on that particular day.

I totally agree with you Eddie Rebecca was the only one I didn’t take to at all, for what reason I don’t know, but she got on my nerves I think she was more me, me, me than the others. I like all the others I actually loved the black dress Anna made, she’s very talented
The right one went home

What a fabulous series this is with some excellent sewing skills.

I think Beth's JA inspired dress could be garment of the series. I love her sewing although I do think Patrick and Esme are wowed by Anna's creations too.

I'm afraid I couldn't take to Rebecca - something about her manner put my back up! Technically she is good but her style is very dated. The remaining 4 are very evenly matched.

Emma beat Rebecca on all three challenges last night though, so she was a shoe in to stay, given (I think) that the judges only use the three challenges of the day to judge people on, not their previous efforts.

I think the judges have a clear idea who they expect to reach the final.

I think Beth is very consistent, not as ‘flashy’ as Anna, (don’t mean that unkindly), but very reserved and skilful.

Emma and Heather, hmm, I thought Heather would be the weakest this week, but no.

Emma got through more on personality than sewing this week.

Perhaps it was just me who thought Rebecca's made to measure was very Jane Austen? There were flaws, though, unfortunately, but not as many as in Emma's.

I was surprised Rebecca went not Emma but it was a very close call.

I thought Emma would go because the back of her dress was poorly sewn and I think Emma expected to go as well.
I can't remember a Sewing Bee where the standard of sewing is so close between the final few.
I had no idea that poor Rebecca has health issues. I liked her. Her transformation challenge where she made a dress from the Primary school coloured ginghams was typically Rebecca.

Calendargirl

I think she mentioned health problems you couldn’t see when the series started.

Can’t recall what they were though.

She has chronic invisible stomach pain.

www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/bbc-sewing-bee-star-tearfully-34553527

I think she mentioned health problems you couldn’t see when the series started.

Can’t recall what they were though.