Great British Sewing Bee: Season 8 - Ep 2

In which #everythingmustbeleopardprint

Week two of the Sewing Bee and this episode didn’t disappoint. 

This week it was sports week, not usually my favourite week in the sewing room, however this was a sports week like no other.  

The pattern challenge, and a first for the Sewing Bee, was footwear, in the form of high top trainers.  This challenge was a big hit in the Stitch Sewcial chat, and led to lots of discussion and googling for patterns, soles and trainer kits. 

The personalities of the sewists really came to the fore in this challenge in their choices of fabric, including the rather unusual choice of tweed for footwear, which reminded me of the time my bonkers husband did a cross country ski touring marathon in Switzerland wearing tweed breeches and a flat cap, maybe that should be the subject of another blog sometime!! 

Back to the Bee, and trainer making was not the easiest of challenges, involving the identical placement and punching of 28 eyelets for the laces to make the perfect matching pair.  This left Debra asking what was wrong with velcro as a fastening! 

Gill ran out of time to complete her pair, whilst Marnie told the judges that her fabric placement showed her trainers meant business at the front and a party at the back! 

There were some amazing trainers for the judges to choose from and obviously I agreed with their winning choice being Man Yee’s, after all, have you seen my favourite memade dungarees?? #everythingmustbeleopardprint

So onto the transformation challenge and this was certainly a very different one, transforming netball kit into glamorous daywear, what could possibly go wrong? 

As it turned out - not too much. 

This was probably one of the more considered transformations by the sewists, who used the pleats from the skirt in some very creative ways, on the whole creating some amazing garments. 

​My absolute favourite was Debra’s top, where she had stitched the pleats down to create a gorgeous wavy design on her simply styled top, which Patrick said was ‘inspired’.  However the winner was Brogan with a dress that used not only the pleated netball skirt, but also contrasting netball bibs and had so many details on it that it was hard to believe it had been made in the transformation challenge

And in the blink of an eye, or the snip of a thread, it was time for the made to measure challenge...

This Week the contestants were asked to make a jacket inspired by their sporting hero.   The Bees’ thinking about how to represent their chosen sports person was truly inspired.  

There was not one but two Tom Daly jackets, one of which also gave a nod to his talent out of the pool, with hand knitted cuffs and collar by Richy, whilst  Chichi used a patch work of colours and a lace sleeve (just the one sleeve) to represent both Surya Bonaly and Florence Griffith Joyner in her jacket. 

Angela played  homage to Freddie Flintoff with a nod to Lancashire with a Lancashire rose fabric lining her pockets, and Gill lined her jacket with a wild cat fabric (that leopard theme again!) to represent Nicola Adams.

Many of  the jackets produced were amazing, and looked stunning on the catwalk.  It has to be said that the sewing ability and  standard of the contestants this year is very high indeed. 

Man Yes’s pattern was inspired by the climbing wall used by her  sporting hero Kim Ja-in, and was beautifully made. 

​However it was Marnie’s jacket, inspired by Heather Stanning, that won high praise from the judges and Garment of the Week, it really was impeccable.  The contestant who left the show was Chichi, sadly her one armed jacket was not well finished and the judges felt she had not done enough this week to stay in the competition.

Marni's Jacket

Man Yee's Jacket

The verdict in Stitch Sewcial was that this was another great episode in what looks like it is going to be an amazing series this year.  If you cant wait to get out there in our own Sewing Bee inspired me-mades then don't forget to take a look at the Foldline’s round up of patterns  similar to those used this week. 

And don’t forget to share your makes with us in Stitch Sewcial  we love seeing what you’ve been inspired by.. 

Next week it’s all about summer outfits.  With so many fabulous summer styles around at the moment I can’t wait to see what the contestants come up with. 

But - I’m going to finish this week’s blog post with something that Brogan said that rang true for me!  When contemplating sports week she said ‘Fabric shopping would be my sport of choice…because that can get quite hot and intense’...if you've ever been fabric shopping in Goldhawk Road in London you will know exactly what she means!!