OVERVIEW: The Great British Sewing Bee
Feb. 16th, 2015 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllI have started watching the Great British Sewing Bee from the beginning this series. I caught the end of the last series, perhaps the last three or four episodes, and then, this year, the episode catching up with last year’s contestants. Hearteningly, they all seemed to be teaching sewing to the next generation, except for Chinelo who I felt should have been making her stunning gowns for people to wear for a living. Which is what she is now doing.
There is an inherent appeal to the format of watching people who are good at something show that off and/or be tested via challenges, but it depends on what that skill is for me. I've also watched the Great Interior Design Challenge, but the show that has started this crafting subset of the reality competitions, the Great British Bake-off, leaves me cold.
Claudia Winkelman is a very funny presenter – although the stand-ins in the celebrity Children in Need episodes were fine, the show missed her - and the judging team of Patrick and May work. He’s generally stricter, although she can be strict enough too.
Watching people make clothes is interesting to me. I’ve always had some interest in fashion, never mind if it doesn't make its way to what I wear. As for sewing itself, while I had lessons, I was never proficient. In fact, a combination of left-handedness, poor hand and eye-co-ordination and general clumsiness probably mean that I am worse than Jo Bettany ever was. Machines always terrified me. I can just about sew buttons back on for a few months and then they come off again, and I can darn holes in socks and tights. The darns are in no way beautiful and probably only hold together because I’ve done too many stitches. My knitting and crochet are equally pitiful. But watching other people be able to do it is soothing, interesting and impressive.
The format is that the contestants must follow a pattern, make an alteration and then come up with something for a real-life model all to a set time. A good five minutes of the hour-long show is their reaction shots when Claudia announces how little time they have left.
After the first episode, the very capable Lorna was impressive – experience counts for a lot when they’re looking for breadth of ability – and the soldier, Neil, who sewed his own bridesmaids’ dresses. That’s not something I imagine many bridegrooms could boast of. A reality TV programme probably does seem less stressful than a warzone. (But maybe the next episode will make him rethink!)
The fact that there are so many men on the programme is interesting. I was always aware that men had done sewing in history, and not just tailors, through books, and the fact that one of my grandfathers took up embroidery, I think in older age and possibly for therapeutic reasons. But certainly at secondary school, sewing was a thing that girls did, like netball and hockey and aerobics. Boys played rugby and football and did carpentry. Or that’s how I remember it, which seems now to be denuding both genders of useful skills. Or that’s the theory. Remember, my sewing is probably worse than Jo Bettany’s.
So, it was interesting to see Ryan improve so much in the second episode – I think he felt a lot more comfortable in the sewing room and whole scenario this time around. As the challenges are so varied, some people are going to feel more comfortable at different times. It was nice to see Paul get the garment of the week for the elephant, although one still feels that Neil is a step ahead of Lorna, whom, like Claudia, I thought of as the bridesmaid. Still, we’ve a while to go yet. I hope more of the women improve and impress. Alex had to go, but she was fun to watch.
There is an inherent appeal to the format of watching people who are good at something show that off and/or be tested via challenges, but it depends on what that skill is for me. I've also watched the Great Interior Design Challenge, but the show that has started this crafting subset of the reality competitions, the Great British Bake-off, leaves me cold.
Claudia Winkelman is a very funny presenter – although the stand-ins in the celebrity Children in Need episodes were fine, the show missed her - and the judging team of Patrick and May work. He’s generally stricter, although she can be strict enough too.
Watching people make clothes is interesting to me. I’ve always had some interest in fashion, never mind if it doesn't make its way to what I wear. As for sewing itself, while I had lessons, I was never proficient. In fact, a combination of left-handedness, poor hand and eye-co-ordination and general clumsiness probably mean that I am worse than Jo Bettany ever was. Machines always terrified me. I can just about sew buttons back on for a few months and then they come off again, and I can darn holes in socks and tights. The darns are in no way beautiful and probably only hold together because I’ve done too many stitches. My knitting and crochet are equally pitiful. But watching other people be able to do it is soothing, interesting and impressive.
The format is that the contestants must follow a pattern, make an alteration and then come up with something for a real-life model all to a set time. A good five minutes of the hour-long show is their reaction shots when Claudia announces how little time they have left.
After the first episode, the very capable Lorna was impressive – experience counts for a lot when they’re looking for breadth of ability – and the soldier, Neil, who sewed his own bridesmaids’ dresses. That’s not something I imagine many bridegrooms could boast of. A reality TV programme probably does seem less stressful than a warzone. (But maybe the next episode will make him rethink!)
The fact that there are so many men on the programme is interesting. I was always aware that men had done sewing in history, and not just tailors, through books, and the fact that one of my grandfathers took up embroidery, I think in older age and possibly for therapeutic reasons. But certainly at secondary school, sewing was a thing that girls did, like netball and hockey and aerobics. Boys played rugby and football and did carpentry. Or that’s how I remember it, which seems now to be denuding both genders of useful skills. Or that’s the theory. Remember, my sewing is probably worse than Jo Bettany’s.
So, it was interesting to see Ryan improve so much in the second episode – I think he felt a lot more comfortable in the sewing room and whole scenario this time around. As the challenges are so varied, some people are going to feel more comfortable at different times. It was nice to see Paul get the garment of the week for the elephant, although one still feels that Neil is a step ahead of Lorna, whom, like Claudia, I thought of as the bridesmaid. Still, we’ve a while to go yet. I hope more of the women improve and impress. Alex had to go, but she was fun to watch.
