TELEVISION: Sewing Bee specials
Jan. 1st, 2021 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe Great British Sewing Bee Celebrity Christmas Speical
This was best watched with Christmassy good cheer to let the puns and silliness and even more innuendo than usual slip down. I was curious as to how they’d manage to do Sewing Bee under COVID restrictions, but the answer was a new space and the contestants, judges and presenter being in a ‘close-contact cohort’, while models wore masks. I don’t know how that will work with normal contestants, because here there were four - novice celebrities, all trying to make the most of very little experience, and I’d like to have known a little more about how much help and training they’d had on the machine etc. Denise and Shirley got the most into it, although Sara grew to like sewing more, and I shared a little of Esme’s hope that this would inspire them to take it up.
The lack of experience all round changed the dynamic, although the show proper has people attempting things for the first time and getting things wrong, so Sara’s overconfidence and falling behind on time were familiar, but the end results in the first round looked more like pyjama bottoms than I’d feared.
The lack of experience at constructing outfits told against them most in the transformation challenge. They seemed to be a very dog-friendly bunch of competitors or perhaps willing to pretend to be. There was certainly a frisson of competitiveness between Shirle (a former professional dancer, so, naturalement) and Denise, who had possibly agreed to this whole thing so that she could sing.
I thought that a made-to-measure challenge was mean for novices, but they obviously had a lot of help – what made it onscreen was Esme actually doing some sewing for Shirley, and Patrick advising Ranj on the extra panel, and the extra fifteen minutes, which were sorely needed. And they did make functioning dresses, even if Ranj’s was way too short. (I wonder what his seamstress mother made of all this.) I’d thought Sara’s was the most realistic design, but the other two got away with it, switching Velcro in for an invisible zip and picking a tricky material aside, which are mistakes we’ve seen more experienced competitors make.
It was fun enough for me to watch the New Year’s special, which was more panto themed. I didn’t know half of the contestants. The Vivienne seemed to have had more sewing experience than everyone else, while you’d have thought that being a stylist would have helped Sabrina. Sometimes the show was trying too hard to entertain, and Patrick and Esme weren’t great at the scripted jokes. They’re there for Esme to drop anecdotes about working for Cher.
In round 1, Lesley’s colour combination was the best, while The Vivienne didn’t seem to suffer too much from taking time to change, but then did the classic ‘not reading the instructions’. Sabrina was expecting to do better,while less confident celebs followed the instructions on te overlocker and did better, while there was a lot of talk about the embellishments, which was five minutes at the end.
As the transformation challenge went on, it became obvious that Lesley wasn’t exactly sewing her costume together, but she got to talk about pantos, and was this the section where Joe attempted a Welsh accent? That was when I laughed the hardest. Once she’d got the basis for her outfit done, Sabrina flailed, while The Vivienne’s Cinders outfit sounded inventive and recognisable, and, again, was the best sewn, but Sally came up with one of the most inventive transformations we’ve seen on the show, even if she needed Joe (or the producers’) help to display it and with the hooves. It was so very clever. The Vivienne was good humoured about losing
The made to measure challenge featured a request for a personal touch. Interesting that two of them fell into the same trap as more experienced civilians in terms of materials. Lesley was repeating the net skirt, but was rightly proud of the bodice, and it was a pretty dress that made you think of Cinderella. Sabrina’s dress looked great on paper, but was way too ambitious in its demands on her sewing skills. The Vivienne’s sewing was better and the glam gown mostly worked – I thought he’d edged it with it, but Sally had picked a more appropriate fabric for a manageable style, and whoever had tipped her off about designing her own pattern (another dog-loving episode) and to do bows knew what they were about. Certainly she was the most creative contestant and because I didn’t think The Vivenne was starting from the same point as the rest, it was fair enouh to award her the prize. (Couldn’t they have got a better singer?)
This is all very promising in terms of the next proper series.
This was best watched with Christmassy good cheer to let the puns and silliness and even more innuendo than usual slip down. I was curious as to how they’d manage to do Sewing Bee under COVID restrictions, but the answer was a new space and the contestants, judges and presenter being in a ‘close-contact cohort’, while models wore masks. I don’t know how that will work with normal contestants, because here there were four - novice celebrities, all trying to make the most of very little experience, and I’d like to have known a little more about how much help and training they’d had on the machine etc. Denise and Shirley got the most into it, although Sara grew to like sewing more, and I shared a little of Esme’s hope that this would inspire them to take it up.
The lack of experience all round changed the dynamic, although the show proper has people attempting things for the first time and getting things wrong, so Sara’s overconfidence and falling behind on time were familiar, but the end results in the first round looked more like pyjama bottoms than I’d feared.
The lack of experience at constructing outfits told against them most in the transformation challenge. They seemed to be a very dog-friendly bunch of competitors or perhaps willing to pretend to be. There was certainly a frisson of competitiveness between Shirle (a former professional dancer, so, naturalement) and Denise, who had possibly agreed to this whole thing so that she could sing.
I thought that a made-to-measure challenge was mean for novices, but they obviously had a lot of help – what made it onscreen was Esme actually doing some sewing for Shirley, and Patrick advising Ranj on the extra panel, and the extra fifteen minutes, which were sorely needed. And they did make functioning dresses, even if Ranj’s was way too short. (I wonder what his seamstress mother made of all this.) I’d thought Sara’s was the most realistic design, but the other two got away with it, switching Velcro in for an invisible zip and picking a tricky material aside, which are mistakes we’ve seen more experienced competitors make.
It was fun enough for me to watch the New Year’s special, which was more panto themed. I didn’t know half of the contestants. The Vivienne seemed to have had more sewing experience than everyone else, while you’d have thought that being a stylist would have helped Sabrina. Sometimes the show was trying too hard to entertain, and Patrick and Esme weren’t great at the scripted jokes. They’re there for Esme to drop anecdotes about working for Cher.
In round 1, Lesley’s colour combination was the best, while The Vivienne didn’t seem to suffer too much from taking time to change, but then did the classic ‘not reading the instructions’. Sabrina was expecting to do better,while less confident celebs followed the instructions on te overlocker and did better, while there was a lot of talk about the embellishments, which was five minutes at the end.
As the transformation challenge went on, it became obvious that Lesley wasn’t exactly sewing her costume together, but she got to talk about pantos, and was this the section where Joe attempted a Welsh accent? That was when I laughed the hardest. Once she’d got the basis for her outfit done, Sabrina flailed, while The Vivienne’s Cinders outfit sounded inventive and recognisable, and, again, was the best sewn, but Sally came up with one of the most inventive transformations we’ve seen on the show, even if she needed Joe (or the producers’) help to display it and with the hooves. It was so very clever. The Vivienne was good humoured about losing
The made to measure challenge featured a request for a personal touch. Interesting that two of them fell into the same trap as more experienced civilians in terms of materials. Lesley was repeating the net skirt, but was rightly proud of the bodice, and it was a pretty dress that made you think of Cinderella. Sabrina’s dress looked great on paper, but was way too ambitious in its demands on her sewing skills. The Vivienne’s sewing was better and the glam gown mostly worked – I thought he’d edged it with it, but Sally had picked a more appropriate fabric for a manageable style, and whoever had tipped her off about designing her own pattern (another dog-loving episode) and to do bows knew what they were about. Certainly she was the most creative contestant and because I didn’t think The Vivenne was starting from the same point as the rest, it was fair enouh to award her the prize. (Couldn’t they have got a better singer?)
This is all very promising in terms of the next proper series.
