N That's sew business
IT’S SPORTSWEAR WEEK ON THE GREAT BRITISH SEWING BEE... AND SOME OF THE CONTESTANTS ARE FEELING THE PACE PICK OF THE DAY
EVER before has sewing a button on a shirt been so darn tense. As this sew-off continues, there is more panic over patterns, anguish over arm holes and at least one crisis over a collar.
Nine contestants remain and it’s sportswear week, which means Joe Lycett gets to wear a sparkly tracksuit.
Limbering up alongside him are the judges – Savile Row’s suited
THE GREAT BRITISH SEWING BEE
BBC1, 9pm
and booted Patrick Grant, always on hand for an innuendo, and top costume designer Esme Young (not to be confused with her doppelganger, fashion designer Edna from The Incredibles).
“The sewing room is our stadium and this is our Olympics,” declares Joe, as over-excited as ever. The pattern challenge is to make a rugby shirt, involving hard-to-handle stretch fabrics and something called a placket.
You’ll hear the word placket so many times it will start to sound even more ridiculous than it did when you first heard it.
In the transformation challenge, the sewers have to turn cagoules into little waterproof onesies for toddlers that need to be stylish, safe and fun.
Then finally, they have to make a tennis outfit and fit it to a real-life person.
Who will smash their way to the top and win garment of the week, and who will score a double fault, becoming the fourth sewer to leave the Great British Sewing Bee?
With upside-down collars, the odd bleeding finger and people praying to the pattern gods, stress levels are rising and things may begin to unravel.