Buzzing with News

 - NEWS FLASH - UK SEWISTS - 

They are already recruiting for a second series!!!!  Head over to this page to see what the application process involves!!!!  

Are you up for it?  

Phew!  That was an exciting News Flash!  

The Great British Sewing Bee TV program is airing tonight and it is the final episode.  With Sandra, Anne and Lauren all sewing a man's shirt for their pattern challenge, doing some hand sewn embellishment on a bag and finally creating an evening dress.  There is no prize, just the honour.

So, here are some links to the three lovely lady finalists:

Anne Rowley has been sharing lots of insights on the program here at artisanssquare, including the fact that the first two episodes were actually filmed consecutively over a 5 day period!!  No wonder they're so exhausted!  I am sure she will have a lot more interesting things to share with us after tonight's program.

Lauren Guthrie has been sharing her experience on her blog Guthrie & Ghani, and is very busy at the moment preparing to open her new haberdashery shop in Birmingham this weekend.  Apparently Sandra, Stuart, Tilly and Ann will all be there on Saturday's Grand Opening!  Wouldn't that be a lovely place to be!

Sandra Lavender doesn't have an online presence (that I can find) but is a very funny and entertaining lady and I wish her all the best in whatever she does with her life - a mother of three girls is a busy job all on it's own!

In case you are interested, there is also a website for Tilly, one of the other contestants, and the behind-the-scenes person who created all the sample garments and timed all the tasks also has a blog with insider's tips.  Her name is Claire-Louise Hardie and she writes a blog at The Thrifty Stitcher.

Personally, I don't mind who "wins" the show as they have all given a lot of their time, energy and reputation to become ambassadors for home sewing and to try and encourage more people to enjoy creating things with fabric.  In fact, all 8 of the contestants have done this, so I thank them for raising the profile of sewing - I am sure all forms of sewing and stitching will benefit from this program in some way.  It has been so much fun to watch sewing on the Telly and I have looked forward to each Tuesday night in ways that I have never looked forward to TV before - almost as if little parts of me were going to be on the screen - wierd.  I guess it's empathy and understanding.

Now here's something else interesting

The lovely people at Simplicity read my blog!!  Can you believe it?!  They wanted to know if I liked the little girl's dress in the opening credits, and if I would like a free copy of the pattern!  

How amazing is that!?  Unfortunately I don't know any little girls to make this for so I declined.....then they asked if I had any Simplicity patterns on my wish list.  Do I ever!!  So here is what they sent me:

 and 

Lovely aren't they?  Not in my size unfortunately - but maybe they'll exchange them for me? Can't hurt to ask right?

In fact, on the Simplicity UK website, they are featuring some of the patterns used in the Great British Sewing Bee program on their Home page - including Sandra and Lauren's jacket patterns.

Really looking forward to this evening's program, hope you all get a chance to see it too - USA readers seem to be getting it on You Tube which is nice.  And looks like they will be making a second series for us to all look forward to.