Tuesday 25 February 2014

The Great British Sewing Bee Challenge


So the Great British Sewing Bee returned to our screens last week, oh how I do love this show.  And it got me wondering, would I be able to do that?  There are eight episodes, whether I can keep up and manage eight challenges we will have to wait and see, but so far so good.

The first challenge they set to the combatants was to make a simple sleeveless top in just two and a half hours.  Now like most people I don't time my sewing, it is just something I do because I enjoy it,  I have sewn many things to a short deadline, but that usually means late nights and as many short-cuts as possible, no stop watches involved.  I did wonder whether or not to even attempt this challenge, not because I thought it would be beyond my capabilities, but because I rarely wear sleeveless tops.  Why make something, if you are not going to wear it?

 Anyway I did decide to go ahead and give this a try, I found a pattern for a simple sleeveless top in my stash, that looked like the one used in the show and I had a remnant of a purple sheet, that was not really big enough for anything else.  Now my lounge probably isn't as high pressured as the Sewing Bee Studio, I just had the company of the lovely Hagrid and an episode of "Poirot" on the DVR, but I did have a stop watch.

Two hours later (not two and a half) I had finished my top.  The only thing I didn't manage to do was the understitiching, it wasn't a step included in my pattern and I didn't realise it had to be done when the neck facing had been sewn, but before the arm facing.  Anyway I notched and pressed a facing and everything else it complete, hem, button, button loop.   And it even fits.

Week One - Challenge One - Complete

I really liked the refashion challenge, but as I don't currently have a woollen maxi skirt to hack to bits, that challenge will have to wait.  I am currently scouring charity shops for the necessary raw materials.