The Great British Sewing Bee

I was able to get Arden to agree to photos in her new rainbow skirt and coordinating shirt yesterday.  But only if she could wear her fairy wings and wand (made herself from a past Kiwi Crate).  Fair enough!

I’ve never tried taking pictures in our upstairs hallway, but the light was filtered through the clouds and looked bright enough without harsh shadows.  Right up until we were ready to go when the sun popped out of the clouds and made for some unpredictable lighting.  Oh well…

So onto the title of this post – have you heard about the Great British Sewing Bee?  It’s a BBC reality program looking for Britain’s best home sewer.

I learned about it only a couple of days ago and it’s taken all my willpower not to plop down and watch all aired episodes in one go.  Typical of BBC programming, there are disappointingly only four in the competition.  If this were in the US, you know there would be 15 or so episodes with a two hour finale.

It’s hosted by Claudia Winkleman, and judged by May Martin – a Women’s Institute Academy teacher with 40 years experience and Patrick Grant – a Savile Row shop owner responsible for turning a declining clientele around.

The competition, competitors, and judges are so much more gentle and respectful with and of each other.  No cattiness or squabbling, just a cup of tea at a shop across the street in between rounds of competition.  The challenges are designed to judge the execution of sewing skills and the judges kindly point out errors with a lean toward education.

The only part I’m not enthralled with is the home project section.  It’s a rapid-fire tutorial of sorts for a simple home project.  It’s just sort of a throw away – not exciting enough for me to want to make the project, and not enough detail in the instruction to make it feasible for most beginning sewists to complete.

I’ve got my money on either Ann – the 80 year old grandma with decades of experience, or on Lauren, the 27 year-old who’s been sewing since she was six.

You can watch episode one on You Tube here, or on BBC iPlayer here.  Watch it and tell me what you think!