New Sewing Bee Series to start this week ...

Yes, I appreciate that. I think what I meant to say and you understood are at variance. I will try an be more explicit next time.

Yes Monica, I know they are amateurs , but sewing fans might like to see the professionals at work.

Well, Sewing Bee contestants are meant to be amateurs, that is the point.

If you are a sewing fan- There’s a series on Netflix called Next in Fashion which is a bit like sewing bee only for professionals. Some of the things they make are totally amazing - make the garments on Sewing Bee look really amateurish .

I absolutely love the show. I used to make my own dresses many years ago but no way was I as creative as the contestants are.

I'm a late comer to Sewing Bee. I only started watching it a couple of series ago. I love it, and have got DH hooked too.
I was put off sewing for life by having to do it at school.
We were in kinks at the tee shirt creations, DH and I haven't laughed so much for ages.

As a by the way, has anyone watched Blown Away on Netflix. What an art glass blowing is!

Several of the early series were won by older women and the standard was high and exacting. Even then, some of them made the most elementary mistakes and had to right them in a hurry.

If there is anything I miss from the earlier years, it is the knowledge that even the most superb needle men/women, can make very basic mistakes, especially under pressure.

Yes the first series was won by a lady in her 70s/ 80s who was very experienced, I think she’d done couture training but hadn’t worked in it so qualified as an amateur. She was head and shoulders above everyone else , I remember her Chanel jacket. It makes better telly I guess seeing some of them making schoolgirl(boy) errors - sewing sleeves upside down or facings back to front.

I agree vegansrock. I was just expanding a little as I have found the growth in the craft market fascinating, especially the sewing side.

I don't know if you remember the first series; that was won by an older sewer who was meticulous in all that she did and knew a lot about it. We haven't seen anyone like her again I don't think.

I love it and so does my husband. I sew, but he doesn’t. Let’s face it, I can’t think of any other sewing programmes on tv and therefore it’s something different. I don’t think the contestants are given enough time to finish off the garments properly, unfortunately. I would struggle to complete a garment in the time given. It’s a very entertaining programme. Esme and Patrick are great judges and Joe’s innuendoes are just this side of acceptable (sometimes very risqué though!).

I shall be watching the Sewing Bee as I did the Pottery Throw down. We all have a choice of what to watch and I don't understand why people decry what others choose. There is plenty of old rubbish I don't watch, that's why I have a remote control.

When Sewing Bee started the producers did go out to get really good amateur sewists, and after the first series they applied in droves, but the problems was they then had to start setting them more and more difficult sewing tasks and, as that happened the participants had to concentrate more and more on the sewing and somehow the programme lost its edge and almost became quite boring.

Given that this is a tv programme, so should entertain, I think the current method of getting good competent sewers and pulling together a really interesting group of people who seem to work well together, works really well. There are more spills and thrills and emotions. This week's programme was worth seeing, just to see Patrick Grant corpse, when he saw the pussy apron.

One of the nice things is how much the competitors help each other, whether it is showing someone how to do something or a comforting hug when someone gets upset.

Chewbacca

Sewing Bee and Pottery Throwdown are the only 2 tv programmes that I watch. I can neither throw a pot nor sew a garment but I thoroughly enjoy both programmes just for the joy of watching creativity.

Like you I don't sew or do anything creative but I love these programmes and watch in admiration about what the participants can do. I've also just started watching the jewellery making series as well. I am just so impressed by what these people can do that I can't, and I don't want to be able to do it - I am perfectly just watching other people do it.

Pippa I know there are a lot of younger sewers but I would suggest that participants in the programme are not necessarily the best sewers out there. I doubt if the proportion of women : men sewers is reflected in the programme. I understand why the programme makers do it, as if it were just older ladies who’d had a lifetime of practice and were possibly technically better it wouldn’t be so interesting.

I have no aptitude whatsoever for sewing but really like this programme.

There were some weird outfits in this first programme weren't there. I was amazed at the competence of the French chap who, I think he said, had only taken up sewing as a result of lockdown.

TV is exactly that - 'a spectator sport'. Well spotted !
You sit, you listen, you watch and -sometimes you can learn something !

Sewing. in terms of creativity and teaching, is no different from the unending and seductive pull of cookery programmes and any series about DIY, pottery, painting and sketching, gardening, keep fit, sport, horse-racing, farming, driving, renovation, restoration, antique collecting, bird-watching, diving, silversmithing.....you name it.

If it's on t.v. you are naturally spectating and if you're interested, you watch, you learn and you're entertained. If not, your choice and you go off and do something else! Maybe it's the whole principle of t.v. that's being criticised here.

12 clever people choosing some fabric and quickly turning it into something to wear? If I couldn't thread a needle, I'd still be fascinated by the process. And fortunately, so would thousands of other lively-minded souls.

I think the mustard dress was quite complicated to make but he had matched it up well. My choice would have been for the turquoise one made by the young lady - student doctor?

It would be interesting to know the statistics about who sews Vegansrock. I think we might be pleasantly surprised as there are many, many younger sewists. They are bringing in a new technical side to it too.

I saw the other day that a company producing bag patterns (lots of people sew bags - it's a huge market) supplies SVG cutting files for use with cutting machines (a favourite of the paper crafting addicts).

You get so many patterns as PDFs nowadays that some companies major in printing them. This means patterns can be sent easily from all over the world. You can also buy the PDF set up especially for overhead projectors. No flimsy tissue paper just the cutting lines projected down.

It's a fascinating market with the big four pattern producers being moved out by all the indy pattern makers - making for a younger or young at heart generation. It's a bit like "sports" where people don't see it as an industry but it certainly is, and a growing one - just look at what you can pay for a sewing machine if you choose too!

I did like the mustard dress, but it didn’t fit the model.

If I wore a buffet dress I’d look like a circus tent!

I watch the programme as I’ve worked in couture and know a french seam from a Hong Kong finish, but it’s obvious the producers try to choose contestants representing the U.K. population, rather than representative of the sewing population. I guess most people who are good at sewing are older females, whereas the programme has more men, younger people than older women, so not necessarily the best sewists. They don’t give them enough time to finish properly which the judges rarely point out - the back of the winning gown gaped and didn’t fit at all .

Sewing Bee and Pottery Throwdown are the only 2 tv programmes that I watch. I can neither throw a pot nor sew a garment but I thoroughly enjoy both programmes just for the joy of watching creativity.

Ooh, I forgot it was on. I will need to watch on catch up. I love Joe.

It's not at all boring. I think every social media group I follow (and magazines I don't) that is either sewing, embroidery machine, or overlocker orientated etc., will follow the programmes and pour out information on machines, patterns, techniques and fabrics which those who are into dressmaking and other sewists love and they will tell you what a buffet dress is .

But more, much more, after shaking up the dressmaking world, it stretches boundaries and it's fun: I haven't laughed so much as I did last night for ages.

Grandma70s Why do you read threads about subjects that you have no interest in and then sneer ?

You did exactly the same recently on a wonderful thread about music festivals , posting a snotty , sneering unnecessary comment .

I invited you then to start a thread of your own but I don’t think you did .