Great British Sewing Bee

Its amazing what antique patterns you can buy on the internet. The old nightdresses and dressing gowns, and tailored jackets.

I agree the men are good. I'm a bit like the the lady that went home. I'm a good dressmaker but I'm not creative. If I see a dress or have good pattern I can finish it and it will fit, but given a length of fabric I'm lost what to do with it.

cant wait for tonights episode.

Am I the only one to find this year's series of the Sewing Bee disappointing?

This year's series is not so much about making something in a certain time as racing against the clock to complete a task. Time and again half or more of the garments are incomplete because the sewer hasn't finished in time and the friendly commentary between the contestants that we had in previous years as they sewed is completely missing. They barely lift their heads from machine or cutting table to reply to anything the presenter says because of the pressure of the race against the clock. Instead we have inserts of clips featuring the contestants and their family at home, which I consider to be a very poor substitute..

One of the things I so enjoyed in previous years was May and Patrick's critiques of each completed garment. But when half the garments are incomplete this is not possible and you cannot judge for yourself how good a sewer any individual is, because half their garments never get finished.

I am not sure what the cause of the problem is. Are the sewers not as capable as those in previous years? Are the tasks they are set too demanding to complete in the time allowed?

Whatever it is, it seems to have limited the creativity of the sewers and the joie de vivre of the contestants and the programme alike. Which to me were the aspects that made the programme so watchable.

I agree that a lot of the fun and spontaneity seems to be missing from this series. I used to look forward to each new episode but now I only watch if I happen to remember it's on.

It feels a bit samey.
And it has been quite obvious from the beginning who some of the better sewers are, I would say, even though I cant sew!

I'm loving it and it's good to see so many men getting this far too. They have set them some difficult tasks - I wouldn't attempt to make a kilt and I love sewing but I am looking forward to this week as much as ever.

The kilt task was tricky!

Anyone going to guess who will win?

I will guess at the woman[cant remember her name] as she is consistent, and the judges like consistency.

Anyone could win in the final but my money is on Neil. Some very talented people this series and some very challenging tasks. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

What's different this time round is that Patrick and May are being too nice. They've obviously been told that 'all must have prizes' and they hardly dare to criticise. Its unrealistic in world where people are being creative and are competing against one another. I think it is boring now but I still watch it and the winner won't be a surprise. (Lorna)
I still like to look at the fabrics and was amazed at the leather jackets.

Anyone noticing the models?
Lorna's model seems quite professional and is taking it all very seriously. She somehow looks like a model.

I agree, MargaretX, the programme's lost its edge. No one wants to see competitors criticised just for the sake of it, but the fact that a couple of the jackets didn't have linings (despite that being in the instructions) hardly raised a comment from the judges.

I was impressed by the quality of the sewing last night though - leather can't be an easy material to work with!

Unless things go badly wrong for her next week, I think Lorna will win.

I think the problem is that generally, Patrick and may give little time to unfinished garments and, in this series, there have been so many unfinished garments.

I missed quite a bit of last night's programme and I am not sure I can be bothered to catch up on it. I will watch next week to see who wins but whether I will bother to watch any further series I am not sure.

They seem to have run out of ideas for challenges so are doing more ambitious projects which can't be finished in the allotted time. It's ceased to be a sewing competition, more a who can finish in time competition.

looking forward to the finals

What a turn around in the final! Until tonight I thought Neil would win with Lorna second and Matt third.
As usual I have thoroughly enjoyed the series.

I thought the projects they were asked to complete were a bit weird! As for the final garments, I just wanted to ask how the heck you have a pee whilst wearing any of them!

Neil blew it. I think that Lorna should have won, just.

I absolutely loathed needlework at school. The teacher practically stood over me to help me get it right but everything I made turned out wrong.

I'd seen the Sewing Bee advertised and wondered why on earth anyone would want to watch it. But I caught it last week and found it really enjoyable. I wish I could make clothes.

I thought the final creations were pretty unwearable but I suppose all that high fashion stuff is.

I too loathed needlework. It took me 3 years to finish a table mat at school! When my children were small I made them clothes from Clothkits which was just up my street, apart from putting in the zips. I can 'do' curtains so long as there is no pattern. I love watching the GSB and am sad that I have missed it (in Oz). However, they are showing the last series here so I have been enjoying that all over again.

I am really sad it is over. I think, in the end, that I would have been happy for any of them to win for different reasons.

I loved sewing at school and even more so when I got away from the slowness of the lessons. I still do but rarely make clothes now except for my GD.

It will be a long wait until the next series.

It's many years since I've sewn anything, but I watched this whole series on iPlayer and loved it. I do think the timescales the competitors are given defeat the object of producing good, professionally made clothes; I think that Patrick and May should lead by example and make one garment themselves each week and then ask the competitors to make the same garment in the same time.
Matt did deserve to win on the basis of tonight's showing I thought, but over all Neil was the most proficient and imaginative sewer.

I love dressmaking but wouldn't go on sewing bee- there isn't enough time to finish anything properly and the judging has been so inconsistent. I think they wanted a man to win as the last 2 had been won by older ladies. Neil blew it last night, so I think Lorna should have won, Matt's lampshade dress was horrible and not well finished.

I really enjoyed the whole series, and the nicest thing about it was the way the three finalists helped one another.
The final three dresses were awful.

I enjoyed it too having never watched it before. I loved the way they helped each other and everyone seemed genuinely friendly.
Clothes were awful mainly!

I thought Neil's dress was dire, which was a shame as I was rooting for him. Matt's was unwearable which didn't meet the requirements of the brief but it was imaginative. I suspect they'd had time to practice or at least knew in advance what the task was to be.

I didn't enjoy this series as much as previous ones though I think this was because the tasks were sometimes ridiculous. Perhaps they should be asked to make things other than mainly clothes for women.