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feather_ghyllQuarter-final/the Music of the Movies
If it was really about the music of the movies, why do a Star Wars spoof (which Joe and Patrick enjoyed too much?) that had nothing to do with music?
Pattern challenge: Baby’s dress from ‘Dirty Dancing’, with instruction as to the two materials to use (toughies that would show up every mistake) and eleventy billion pieces. It was clearly tight for time as only two out of the five finished properly.
Rebecca was very open about wanting to beat Serena (to the point that I got irritated by her by the end of the episode even if she was egged on by the producers.) Damien hadn’t seen the film. (Not a shock.) Three of them went for reds or red adjacent, and in fact nobody really went for the colour of the original dress.
Anyway, it was all difficult, Serena was traumatised by satin, Rebecca had to unpick, Damien was even slower than Farie and fudged the zip. Serena got the most done properly, even if Rebecca’s lace was nicer. Raph hovered in the middle and they just about ranked Damien below Farie (I’d have called those two being at the bottom before the episode, actually.)
Transformation: curtains into playsuits. Damien hadn’t seen ‘The Sound of Music’ either. (Actually, that is slightly more shocking to me.) Joe had definitely seen it and continued to have a re-enactment ball.
They all got praised for the quality of their work. Farie had seemed confident as the person most used to sewing for children, but her grand plan got off track because of the thickness of what she had to sew through. Damien had a rethink midway and ended up doing the same lederhosen idea as Raph, only less stylishly. Rebecca had a nifty idea, and I thought she might win as a result, but Serena (perhaps because they were given firmer parameters than in some of these challenges) had come up with something very stylish. Like the judges, I noticed the Japanese influence, and it sounded as if the sewing and balance won out. That’s her first transformation challenge win, isn’t it? Rebecca tried to play off always being the bridesmaid, as ‘fine, because we’re all FRIENDS’ but I imagine she’ll rewatch this and think that if the children she taught behaved like this, she’d be having words with them.
Made to measure: a disco-inspired OTT creation fit for the Dreamgirls. Damien hilariously said he hadn’t got much inspiration from the film, and the judges observed he was inspired by the wrong decade. His dress turned out better than I feared overall, but he was the one to have interface-caused bubbling this time and to be tight on time. Serena was doing curvy sequined materials coming together – but she’s never looked like winning this round, ever. I didn’t understand what Farie was planning to do with the shoulder until I saw it, and she was always tense. Rebecca was doing a golden thing and going on about her fishtail A LOT, while Raph’s outfit was a whole different level of stylish (granted, by doing a jumpsuit, he was doing something different to the rest.) Not only was he gilding the lily, he was bringing ostrich feathers and a cape.
The judges claimed to be fighting over garment of the week, with Esme promoting Raph’s vision and Patrick Rebecca’s, but I can’t imagine it was a passionate argument, because Rebecca’s sewing was faultless and Raph’s was not. She jumped up and down, delighted. ‘I came first.’ But phoning her family and starting off by trying to make them think she was out was less endearing.
But of course, it was Damien who was leaving. With him and Farie both coming bottom in the previous two challenges, it had depended on this one, and he’d done worse. He’d obviously not been as experienced with the techniques that were asked of them as the rest, and seemed to have learned a lot. The producers set up the narrative from the beginning (that Rebecca fell for) that he was going to be one of the first out, but he turned out to be a surprising person and brought a different energy to the show – to wit, him and Joe trying to do the ‘Dirty Dancing’ jump and lift (thankfully, veering off, because I was suspecting it would ead to injuries.)
Semi-final/1940s week.
Joe was in a remarkable jacket, but I liked Esme’s dress. It soon became apparent that there were two tiers of competition going on simultaneously, although Raph seemed the most confident in the pattern challenge, having done trousers and flies and whatnot in the past. Farie’s perfectionism made her fall behind (nothing new there) and eagle-eyed Esme spotted the bit Rebecca had failed to sew (in another garment that seemed to be made of endless pieces.) Hard to tell whether Raph or Serena would swing it, but Raph is definitely back.
They were given parachutes in the transformation challenge and with all that material, they all went for dresses. The judges weren’t too critical. Rebecca came last solely because Esme really hated the yellow as far as I could tell as she used the details as much as others. I couldn’t really make out the wedding gown because of its whiteness, but Serena’s transformation did have impact (I note the other competitors’ reactions when they saw it) and was different from the others. She was clearly chuffed to bits to win her second transformation challenge.
So, with honours even between her and Raph, and Farie and Rebecca sharing the other thing, the judges’ comments were no surprise, neither was a Christian Dior/New Look made-to-measure challenge. Farie was the one who got disappointed by the material that got delivered to her home this time, while Raph went for the interesting idea of a mostly trad look with modern materials. Serena’s choice of trousers seemed a little surprising because of the background of the challenge. Joe finally mentioned that she hadn’t won garment of the week yet, of which she was perfectly aware, thanks.
I wasn’t as anti the florals as the judges were, but we’d seen Rebecca’s meltdown over the outfit at the end at the top of the show. Serena getting the size of the trousers wrong was a surprise, and then a niggle for her throughout, as Farie…fell behind, and then I spent all the time between her trying to get the dress on the model and the runway wondering how she’d managed it.
‘By ripping some stiches apart’ was the answer. The judges pointed to unfinished hems, so although Rebecca had obviously made a mess of the buttons (is that why the bottom of the top wasn’t lined up?) I rather thought Farie would get the cruel boot. Minor judgy nitpicks in the comments for Raph and Serena, possibly his choice of material for his top affected the look a little. Although to be honest, I suspect they decided to relent and give Serena garment of the week just for once (they’ve all been the made to measures, this series, haven’t they?)
Farie was tearful in defeat, Rebecca failed to endear herself to me again by making her friend and model think she’d failed from her tone of voice. Even if some of this is editorially driven, I sincerely hope she’s a bystander as Raph and Serena duke it out, and doesn’t miraculously come through to win the final.
Final/celebration!
As pointed out by the show, the three young’uns were through. I don’t think I’d grasped before that Raph seemed to have only really focused on sewing in lockdown. We learned Rebecca, having trained as a teacher, was now working at Morrisons, which sayd a lot about employment these days. Clearly, she should try to find a way to incorporate sewing into her career. My opinion of Rebecca wobbled, as, unprompted, wasn’t all that nice around her friend. But then she came to Serena’s aid over the zipper and seemed nicer at the end. Meanwhile, Serena talked about watching the show/final last year in lockdown allying herself with us viewers, and we got a glimpse of how much sewing meant to her.
The pattern challenge was a wee bridesmaid’s dress. I think I preferred Raph’s colour choice. He and Serena, probably knowing they were the favourites, went for a tougher-to-sew silk than Rebecca’s satin, butRebecca didn’t quite benefit from her choice, despite all the talk of fraying and stitching in the ditch. Esme was not impressed when both Raph and Serena admitted they were taking a shortcut, and Serena decided to unpick and follow the instructions, putting her on the very verge of not finishing. She was vindicated by the result, though.
I don’t know if they were doing more close-ups of Serena’s face in this episode, or if she was pulling more faces because it all meant so much, as it did to all of them, clearly.
Transformation challenge: festival gear from shiny household materials. Rebecca going for ‘delicate’ and ‘pastel’ (which the judges politely described as stylish) always seemed like a mistake, while Serena pluckily pushed herself. Raph always seemed to have the advantage of having been to festivals. I mean, I found the neckless mannequin creepy, specially as the bottom and half parts were separate, but he passed the key test of making something that invited Patrick try it on, as inspired by Joe.
Joe’s best bit was pretending to be headlining in front of all the child mannequins, I think.
The 2021 of it all was most obvious in the made-to-measure round. Having a friend/relative as a model led to emotional reunions, particularly from Serena, who diagnosed her tears as exhaustion and nerves. Although I think all the contestants had picked these people with an eye to the look they’d provide, professional models must have wept as they stomped up and down in the runway bit.
Everyone’s descriptions of the off the shoulder red carpet dress they were going to make were unsurprising: Rebecca went for the most traditional look; Serena was inspired by Villanelle (although there was talk about it being a modern look and out of her comfort zone); while Raph’s dress had a whole concept and story behind it.
Despite their bigging up the difficulty of the gaudet, Rebecca continued quite serenely. Serena had gathers that could go wrong, and the last second there was ‘Will it zip?’ panic. Raph started falling behind with the draping, and it all got more complicated and there were bits he couldn’t manage to get to. He hadn’t quite pulled it off as he’d threatened to. There were minor criticisms about the other two’s gowns, although after Patrick had made a point of noting the sewing that Serena had done under the fouffy bits, I was fairly sure he had her in mind when he said he knew who should win, while Esme sounded more undecided.
And then we had Zoom with the former contestants, Zoom with the family, all of whom would have been there in the flesh normally, but it was nice that the masked production staff were there to make up the numbers (even if, in 2019 or earlier, the thought of a crowd of masked people we’d never seen before would have freaked me out.)
I’d told myself I wouldn’t mind if one of the Celts won, but I was slightly more on Serena’s side, and I didn’t think Raph had pulled off the made-to-measure to outshine all of Serena’s work and glimpses of development in constructing more imaginative and creative gowns. Esme’s words about Serena having the ability to make the clothes she sewed look like they hadn’t been touched by human hand, but rather magic dust meant more after she’d seemed to be with-holding. I think they always claim that it’s the best sewing they’ve ever seen, but it was clear that the judges were thrilled to get to make the show after everything and everyone was giddily running on fumes by the end.
If it was really about the music of the movies, why do a Star Wars spoof (which Joe and Patrick enjoyed too much?) that had nothing to do with music?
Pattern challenge: Baby’s dress from ‘Dirty Dancing’, with instruction as to the two materials to use (toughies that would show up every mistake) and eleventy billion pieces. It was clearly tight for time as only two out of the five finished properly.
Rebecca was very open about wanting to beat Serena (to the point that I got irritated by her by the end of the episode even if she was egged on by the producers.) Damien hadn’t seen the film. (Not a shock.) Three of them went for reds or red adjacent, and in fact nobody really went for the colour of the original dress.
Anyway, it was all difficult, Serena was traumatised by satin, Rebecca had to unpick, Damien was even slower than Farie and fudged the zip. Serena got the most done properly, even if Rebecca’s lace was nicer. Raph hovered in the middle and they just about ranked Damien below Farie (I’d have called those two being at the bottom before the episode, actually.)
Transformation: curtains into playsuits. Damien hadn’t seen ‘The Sound of Music’ either. (Actually, that is slightly more shocking to me.) Joe had definitely seen it and continued to have a re-enactment ball.
They all got praised for the quality of their work. Farie had seemed confident as the person most used to sewing for children, but her grand plan got off track because of the thickness of what she had to sew through. Damien had a rethink midway and ended up doing the same lederhosen idea as Raph, only less stylishly. Rebecca had a nifty idea, and I thought she might win as a result, but Serena (perhaps because they were given firmer parameters than in some of these challenges) had come up with something very stylish. Like the judges, I noticed the Japanese influence, and it sounded as if the sewing and balance won out. That’s her first transformation challenge win, isn’t it? Rebecca tried to play off always being the bridesmaid, as ‘fine, because we’re all FRIENDS’ but I imagine she’ll rewatch this and think that if the children she taught behaved like this, she’d be having words with them.
Made to measure: a disco-inspired OTT creation fit for the Dreamgirls. Damien hilariously said he hadn’t got much inspiration from the film, and the judges observed he was inspired by the wrong decade. His dress turned out better than I feared overall, but he was the one to have interface-caused bubbling this time and to be tight on time. Serena was doing curvy sequined materials coming together – but she’s never looked like winning this round, ever. I didn’t understand what Farie was planning to do with the shoulder until I saw it, and she was always tense. Rebecca was doing a golden thing and going on about her fishtail A LOT, while Raph’s outfit was a whole different level of stylish (granted, by doing a jumpsuit, he was doing something different to the rest.) Not only was he gilding the lily, he was bringing ostrich feathers and a cape.
The judges claimed to be fighting over garment of the week, with Esme promoting Raph’s vision and Patrick Rebecca’s, but I can’t imagine it was a passionate argument, because Rebecca’s sewing was faultless and Raph’s was not. She jumped up and down, delighted. ‘I came first.’ But phoning her family and starting off by trying to make them think she was out was less endearing.
But of course, it was Damien who was leaving. With him and Farie both coming bottom in the previous two challenges, it had depended on this one, and he’d done worse. He’d obviously not been as experienced with the techniques that were asked of them as the rest, and seemed to have learned a lot. The producers set up the narrative from the beginning (that Rebecca fell for) that he was going to be one of the first out, but he turned out to be a surprising person and brought a different energy to the show – to wit, him and Joe trying to do the ‘Dirty Dancing’ jump and lift (thankfully, veering off, because I was suspecting it would ead to injuries.)
Semi-final/1940s week.
Joe was in a remarkable jacket, but I liked Esme’s dress. It soon became apparent that there were two tiers of competition going on simultaneously, although Raph seemed the most confident in the pattern challenge, having done trousers and flies and whatnot in the past. Farie’s perfectionism made her fall behind (nothing new there) and eagle-eyed Esme spotted the bit Rebecca had failed to sew (in another garment that seemed to be made of endless pieces.) Hard to tell whether Raph or Serena would swing it, but Raph is definitely back.
They were given parachutes in the transformation challenge and with all that material, they all went for dresses. The judges weren’t too critical. Rebecca came last solely because Esme really hated the yellow as far as I could tell as she used the details as much as others. I couldn’t really make out the wedding gown because of its whiteness, but Serena’s transformation did have impact (I note the other competitors’ reactions when they saw it) and was different from the others. She was clearly chuffed to bits to win her second transformation challenge.
So, with honours even between her and Raph, and Farie and Rebecca sharing the other thing, the judges’ comments were no surprise, neither was a Christian Dior/New Look made-to-measure challenge. Farie was the one who got disappointed by the material that got delivered to her home this time, while Raph went for the interesting idea of a mostly trad look with modern materials. Serena’s choice of trousers seemed a little surprising because of the background of the challenge. Joe finally mentioned that she hadn’t won garment of the week yet, of which she was perfectly aware, thanks.
I wasn’t as anti the florals as the judges were, but we’d seen Rebecca’s meltdown over the outfit at the end at the top of the show. Serena getting the size of the trousers wrong was a surprise, and then a niggle for her throughout, as Farie…fell behind, and then I spent all the time between her trying to get the dress on the model and the runway wondering how she’d managed it.
‘By ripping some stiches apart’ was the answer. The judges pointed to unfinished hems, so although Rebecca had obviously made a mess of the buttons (is that why the bottom of the top wasn’t lined up?) I rather thought Farie would get the cruel boot. Minor judgy nitpicks in the comments for Raph and Serena, possibly his choice of material for his top affected the look a little. Although to be honest, I suspect they decided to relent and give Serena garment of the week just for once (they’ve all been the made to measures, this series, haven’t they?)
Farie was tearful in defeat, Rebecca failed to endear herself to me again by making her friend and model think she’d failed from her tone of voice. Even if some of this is editorially driven, I sincerely hope she’s a bystander as Raph and Serena duke it out, and doesn’t miraculously come through to win the final.
Final/celebration!
As pointed out by the show, the three young’uns were through. I don’t think I’d grasped before that Raph seemed to have only really focused on sewing in lockdown. We learned Rebecca, having trained as a teacher, was now working at Morrisons, which sayd a lot about employment these days. Clearly, she should try to find a way to incorporate sewing into her career. My opinion of Rebecca wobbled, as, unprompted, wasn’t all that nice around her friend. But then she came to Serena’s aid over the zipper and seemed nicer at the end. Meanwhile, Serena talked about watching the show/final last year in lockdown allying herself with us viewers, and we got a glimpse of how much sewing meant to her.
The pattern challenge was a wee bridesmaid’s dress. I think I preferred Raph’s colour choice. He and Serena, probably knowing they were the favourites, went for a tougher-to-sew silk than Rebecca’s satin, butRebecca didn’t quite benefit from her choice, despite all the talk of fraying and stitching in the ditch. Esme was not impressed when both Raph and Serena admitted they were taking a shortcut, and Serena decided to unpick and follow the instructions, putting her on the very verge of not finishing. She was vindicated by the result, though.
I don’t know if they were doing more close-ups of Serena’s face in this episode, or if she was pulling more faces because it all meant so much, as it did to all of them, clearly.
Transformation challenge: festival gear from shiny household materials. Rebecca going for ‘delicate’ and ‘pastel’ (which the judges politely described as stylish) always seemed like a mistake, while Serena pluckily pushed herself. Raph always seemed to have the advantage of having been to festivals. I mean, I found the neckless mannequin creepy, specially as the bottom and half parts were separate, but he passed the key test of making something that invited Patrick try it on, as inspired by Joe.
Joe’s best bit was pretending to be headlining in front of all the child mannequins, I think.
The 2021 of it all was most obvious in the made-to-measure round. Having a friend/relative as a model led to emotional reunions, particularly from Serena, who diagnosed her tears as exhaustion and nerves. Although I think all the contestants had picked these people with an eye to the look they’d provide, professional models must have wept as they stomped up and down in the runway bit.
Everyone’s descriptions of the off the shoulder red carpet dress they were going to make were unsurprising: Rebecca went for the most traditional look; Serena was inspired by Villanelle (although there was talk about it being a modern look and out of her comfort zone); while Raph’s dress had a whole concept and story behind it.
Despite their bigging up the difficulty of the gaudet, Rebecca continued quite serenely. Serena had gathers that could go wrong, and the last second there was ‘Will it zip?’ panic. Raph started falling behind with the draping, and it all got more complicated and there were bits he couldn’t manage to get to. He hadn’t quite pulled it off as he’d threatened to. There were minor criticisms about the other two’s gowns, although after Patrick had made a point of noting the sewing that Serena had done under the fouffy bits, I was fairly sure he had her in mind when he said he knew who should win, while Esme sounded more undecided.
And then we had Zoom with the former contestants, Zoom with the family, all of whom would have been there in the flesh normally, but it was nice that the masked production staff were there to make up the numbers (even if, in 2019 or earlier, the thought of a crowd of masked people we’d never seen before would have freaked me out.)
I’d told myself I wouldn’t mind if one of the Celts won, but I was slightly more on Serena’s side, and I didn’t think Raph had pulled off the made-to-measure to outshine all of Serena’s work and glimpses of development in constructing more imaginative and creative gowns. Esme’s words about Serena having the ability to make the clothes she sewed look like they hadn’t been touched by human hand, but rather magic dust meant more after she’d seemed to be with-holding. I think they always claim that it’s the best sewing they’ve ever seen, but it was clear that the judges were thrilled to get to make the show after everything and everyone was giddily running on fumes by the end.
