REVIEW: The Festive Great British Sewing Bee
The Christmas episode
This started by facing up to Joe Lycett departing for Channel 4 with the introduction of the new presenter Sara Pascoe, who, as she would later remind us, was a former contestant on one of last year’s specials. I thought Lycett had just hit his stride in the previous series, and although Pascoe was all right in quipping and connecting with the contestants - even able to offer helpful suggestions - I would have liked a more experienced presenter reading the explanations of the costumes. I’m possibly grumbly because after dressing up in the first scene, she stopped doing it.
Two of the four contestants seemed to have some clue what they were doing: Kate (trying to make up for being polytheistic towards the start of the show) and Anthony. She’d clearly sewn before, and his mother was a professional, and she was clearly the third judge in his mind at all times. He was very competitive and clearly in another league.
Kael and Anneka were obviously far less experienced, almost making me wish the show found celebrities with some experience of sewing and competence, even if it’s not quite the high leve of the contestants in the show proper. I cringed when they mentioned the ‘overlocker’ in the first round.
Having said all that, we had familiar tropes in the first round - Kael deciding to ignore Patrick’s advice, Kate falling far, far behind, Anneka following Anthony in sewing the applique on first. I was slightly surprised by the order they were anked after the comments, which had been nice, but hadn’t skipped over the problems. Anthony won, obviously. And those weren’t proper Christmas jumpers, but anyway.
The transformation challenge was second-hand clothes, all grouped in very obviously hinting boxes, although Sara had to tell a stymied Anthony to do a festive elf (he was a classic good sewer who can follow a pattern like nobody’s business but would need several weeks of transformation challenges to get his creative juices flowing.) Anneka was also flummoxed, just by the whole construction of a fairy/angel dress thing, and was clearly stalling for time. Possibly her most priceless moment was when the judges enquired how you’d get inand out of it, because I think Esme would was perfectly open to the idea of a punk angel/fairy.
Kael came up with a creative idea, but did little sewing, and it would have been better if he’d ceated armholes, while Kate loved fancy dress parties and was perfectly willing to follow the strong hint of the content fo her job (which you wouldn’t get in a proper transformation challenge) and did create the most functional fanciest dress, as evidenced by Patrick putting it on. Anthony went into a hissyfit that all his hard work in crafting a bow and actually sewing (unlike Anneka and Kael) was unrewarded.
It was clear that he had watched the show at least, although I think Kate was the biggest fan. So then we had the made to measure challenge, where the celebs were meant to talk about Christmases past (Kae and Anthony were weaker here, while Kate was honouring her mother and Anneka was using her old Sindy doll to be a proxy for how she felt about her trademark jumpsuit.) The show got a bit coy about the Christmas elves who were helpng these inexperienced folk at sewing by cutting the material out and suggesting stiches, as they did some measuring. And the help was clearly needed, because we had two occasions where people had forgotten to put the thread in which is pretty basic.
But they all produced pretty decent outfits. Granted, Kael’s material didn’t help him, but it was a complete dress, while Kate’s was possibly a touch ambitious as regards the material and the amount of sewing that she needed to do (but that’s the sort of thing you’d see on the show proper.) That and Anneka’s jumpsuit were pretty good - I imagine constructing a jumpsuit is not easy and it came together well and fitted well, while Anthony had listened to his mother about keeping it simple and trusting in the bow. I thought the made to measure was closer than it was, but Patrick and Esme know their sewing, obviously, and probably had a better idea of how much assistance was offered. Having come to win, Anthony was clealy chuffed to bits to be able to call his mother and tell her that he had. Weird that he called her by her first name so much, though.
The New Year’s episode
Sara was obsessed with being Big Ben all episode - and was far more willing to dress up, so maybe I just need to get accustomed to her. These contestants all seemed to have some experience of sewing, which was what I’d wanted after the previous episode, and made it all ore soothing, although none were big enough fans of the show to know what bagging out is (a technique TV makers love because it involves contestants flapping clothes about.)
Laurence running away from the pattern set the tone. So, the pattern challenge was a festive waistcoat that allowed Sara to be rude about wearers of festive waistcoats. (She’s not wrong.) Claire ignored Patrick’s advice about her shiny silver fabric being difficult to sew.
Three of them successfully bagged out the waistcoats, apart from Kirsty, who had seemed reasonably confident up til then. Oh dear. Yet she styled it out admirably. Rose trying to negotiate her way up from third was…novel, as was her proud willingness to wear the garment she’d made, but obviously ineffective, and if it’s Rose vs. Esme, we all know who’s going to win. Fair ranking,
Round two wheeled on the adorable mini Esme and Patrick, although I have no idea if this was one of the lightsaber- wielding nephews, random children or children of the production staff they couldn’t find childcare for. Little Esme would very much like the gold dress.
Making a child’s party outfit from two dresses would be the most normal challenge, (and was less patronising than the same round last week) and the contestants approached it with confidence, but Claire was still obviously nervous, and struggled the most. The others had a more definite vision and plan of attack, although Kirsty and Lawrence seemed to do the most transformational work. It was all amusing enough, from the mannequin dismemberment to Kirsty Wark, of all people, nicking a feather off Lawrence for her headband. Claire flapped around, Rose went for bows (even if she hadn’t thought about how it was going to be affixed to the head, which is where Kirsty scored. Lawrence’s outfit was snazzy - actually they all seemed wearable until the judges observed that it wouldn’t be easy to get in and out of Kirsty’s outfit. The ranking was fair, although Rose grumbled, but second is better than third. So, Lawrence had two wins.
When the brief for the made to measure was announced, my eyebrows shot up, but everyone responded well to the food themed fancy dress request. All the ideas seemed plausible, perhaps Rose’s least of all when the cheese part of her fondue set got interrogated. (Was this filmed before she appeared on Richard Osmond’s House of Games, or did she not win the fondue set, then? I only knew three of these celebs, but sometimes I only know a celeb is a celeb because they appear on one of these things.) I am curious as to how the cutting by others and measuring by the contestants interacted, but it was glossed over again, so I don’t know how much of the fit was down to the celebs.
Lawrence and Claire were okay for the dreaded timekeeping, Kirsty and Rose weren’t, although Kirsty did pull it all together better by the end. Esme was sniffy about the bacon, but it was fairly clear that it was meant to be a stylised representation of pigs in blankets, and, as such, it worked. Kirsty’s depiction of Hogmanay worked - I think she outScottished Patrick despite the return of his kilt. As they said, Rose came up with a good dress, but a less good costume and she might argue it was a party conversation starter as much as she liked, you need the visual impact. Which Claire’s ice-cream sundae delivered.
She seemed far more relaxed on day two after the demoralisation of day one, perhaps having practiced it, or having got the wobbles out of her system helped. As she gathered the skirt, it was clear that it was coming together as she’d intended, and there was less stress as she finished the top, also as she wanted. I was rooting for her to win garment of the week, although whoever had draped it for the reveal did a good job, because I thought it was Lawrence’s gown, and the drag queen was the one who had clearly the most recent and consistent sewing experience. But Claire won the biggest battle. And good-humoured Kirsty seemed t have rediscovered the joy of sewing.
And then came the most surreal thing - remember it aired on a primetime BBC1 slot - possibly of the year, which is saying something, where Sara, Patrick and Esme all dressed up, the other contestants vamped a bit and Claire sang us out on ‘Gloria’. And Esme danced as if it was Top of the Pops, even though/because she was in a very silly fancy dress outfit. This entry was originally posted at https://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/191458.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.
This started by facing up to Joe Lycett departing for Channel 4 with the introduction of the new presenter Sara Pascoe, who, as she would later remind us, was a former contestant on one of last year’s specials. I thought Lycett had just hit his stride in the previous series, and although Pascoe was all right in quipping and connecting with the contestants - even able to offer helpful suggestions - I would have liked a more experienced presenter reading the explanations of the costumes. I’m possibly grumbly because after dressing up in the first scene, she stopped doing it.
Two of the four contestants seemed to have some clue what they were doing: Kate (trying to make up for being polytheistic towards the start of the show) and Anthony. She’d clearly sewn before, and his mother was a professional, and she was clearly the third judge in his mind at all times. He was very competitive and clearly in another league.
Kael and Anneka were obviously far less experienced, almost making me wish the show found celebrities with some experience of sewing and competence, even if it’s not quite the high leve of the contestants in the show proper. I cringed when they mentioned the ‘overlocker’ in the first round.
Having said all that, we had familiar tropes in the first round - Kael deciding to ignore Patrick’s advice, Kate falling far, far behind, Anneka following Anthony in sewing the applique on first. I was slightly surprised by the order they were anked after the comments, which had been nice, but hadn’t skipped over the problems. Anthony won, obviously. And those weren’t proper Christmas jumpers, but anyway.
The transformation challenge was second-hand clothes, all grouped in very obviously hinting boxes, although Sara had to tell a stymied Anthony to do a festive elf (he was a classic good sewer who can follow a pattern like nobody’s business but would need several weeks of transformation challenges to get his creative juices flowing.) Anneka was also flummoxed, just by the whole construction of a fairy/angel dress thing, and was clearly stalling for time. Possibly her most priceless moment was when the judges enquired how you’d get inand out of it, because I think Esme would was perfectly open to the idea of a punk angel/fairy.
Kael came up with a creative idea, but did little sewing, and it would have been better if he’d ceated armholes, while Kate loved fancy dress parties and was perfectly willing to follow the strong hint of the content fo her job (which you wouldn’t get in a proper transformation challenge) and did create the most functional fanciest dress, as evidenced by Patrick putting it on. Anthony went into a hissyfit that all his hard work in crafting a bow and actually sewing (unlike Anneka and Kael) was unrewarded.
It was clear that he had watched the show at least, although I think Kate was the biggest fan. So then we had the made to measure challenge, where the celebs were meant to talk about Christmases past (Kae and Anthony were weaker here, while Kate was honouring her mother and Anneka was using her old Sindy doll to be a proxy for how she felt about her trademark jumpsuit.) The show got a bit coy about the Christmas elves who were helpng these inexperienced folk at sewing by cutting the material out and suggesting stiches, as they did some measuring. And the help was clearly needed, because we had two occasions where people had forgotten to put the thread in which is pretty basic.
But they all produced pretty decent outfits. Granted, Kael’s material didn’t help him, but it was a complete dress, while Kate’s was possibly a touch ambitious as regards the material and the amount of sewing that she needed to do (but that’s the sort of thing you’d see on the show proper.) That and Anneka’s jumpsuit were pretty good - I imagine constructing a jumpsuit is not easy and it came together well and fitted well, while Anthony had listened to his mother about keeping it simple and trusting in the bow. I thought the made to measure was closer than it was, but Patrick and Esme know their sewing, obviously, and probably had a better idea of how much assistance was offered. Having come to win, Anthony was clealy chuffed to bits to be able to call his mother and tell her that he had. Weird that he called her by her first name so much, though.
The New Year’s episode
Sara was obsessed with being Big Ben all episode - and was far more willing to dress up, so maybe I just need to get accustomed to her. These contestants all seemed to have some experience of sewing, which was what I’d wanted after the previous episode, and made it all ore soothing, although none were big enough fans of the show to know what bagging out is (a technique TV makers love because it involves contestants flapping clothes about.)
Laurence running away from the pattern set the tone. So, the pattern challenge was a festive waistcoat that allowed Sara to be rude about wearers of festive waistcoats. (She’s not wrong.) Claire ignored Patrick’s advice about her shiny silver fabric being difficult to sew.
Three of them successfully bagged out the waistcoats, apart from Kirsty, who had seemed reasonably confident up til then. Oh dear. Yet she styled it out admirably. Rose trying to negotiate her way up from third was…novel, as was her proud willingness to wear the garment she’d made, but obviously ineffective, and if it’s Rose vs. Esme, we all know who’s going to win. Fair ranking,
Round two wheeled on the adorable mini Esme and Patrick, although I have no idea if this was one of the lightsaber- wielding nephews, random children or children of the production staff they couldn’t find childcare for. Little Esme would very much like the gold dress.
Making a child’s party outfit from two dresses would be the most normal challenge, (and was less patronising than the same round last week) and the contestants approached it with confidence, but Claire was still obviously nervous, and struggled the most. The others had a more definite vision and plan of attack, although Kirsty and Lawrence seemed to do the most transformational work. It was all amusing enough, from the mannequin dismemberment to Kirsty Wark, of all people, nicking a feather off Lawrence for her headband. Claire flapped around, Rose went for bows (even if she hadn’t thought about how it was going to be affixed to the head, which is where Kirsty scored. Lawrence’s outfit was snazzy - actually they all seemed wearable until the judges observed that it wouldn’t be easy to get in and out of Kirsty’s outfit. The ranking was fair, although Rose grumbled, but second is better than third. So, Lawrence had two wins.
When the brief for the made to measure was announced, my eyebrows shot up, but everyone responded well to the food themed fancy dress request. All the ideas seemed plausible, perhaps Rose’s least of all when the cheese part of her fondue set got interrogated. (Was this filmed before she appeared on Richard Osmond’s House of Games, or did she not win the fondue set, then? I only knew three of these celebs, but sometimes I only know a celeb is a celeb because they appear on one of these things.) I am curious as to how the cutting by others and measuring by the contestants interacted, but it was glossed over again, so I don’t know how much of the fit was down to the celebs.
Lawrence and Claire were okay for the dreaded timekeeping, Kirsty and Rose weren’t, although Kirsty did pull it all together better by the end. Esme was sniffy about the bacon, but it was fairly clear that it was meant to be a stylised representation of pigs in blankets, and, as such, it worked. Kirsty’s depiction of Hogmanay worked - I think she outScottished Patrick despite the return of his kilt. As they said, Rose came up with a good dress, but a less good costume and she might argue it was a party conversation starter as much as she liked, you need the visual impact. Which Claire’s ice-cream sundae delivered.
She seemed far more relaxed on day two after the demoralisation of day one, perhaps having practiced it, or having got the wobbles out of her system helped. As she gathered the skirt, it was clear that it was coming together as she’d intended, and there was less stress as she finished the top, also as she wanted. I was rooting for her to win garment of the week, although whoever had draped it for the reveal did a good job, because I thought it was Lawrence’s gown, and the drag queen was the one who had clearly the most recent and consistent sewing experience. But Claire won the biggest battle. And good-humoured Kirsty seemed t have rediscovered the joy of sewing.
And then came the most surreal thing - remember it aired on a primetime BBC1 slot - possibly of the year, which is saying something, where Sara, Patrick and Esme all dressed up, the other contestants vamped a bit and Claire sang us out on ‘Gloria’. And Esme danced as if it was Top of the Pops, even though/because she was in a very silly fancy dress outfit. This entry was originally posted at https://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/191458.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.