The Great British Sewing Bee Live.

I thought I’d give a quick snapshot review of our day at The Great British Sewing Bee Live which was held at the Excel centre last week. When the event was first advertised, I was a little unsure on how well it would do, coming the weekend after The Handmade Fair and only a couple of weeks ahead of The Knitting & Stitching Show. Would it be successful sandwiched in between two well established events?  

We arrived at about 10:30am on Saturday and the show was fairly quiet. The stands were well laid out wide gangways which definitely helped it feel less busy. After dropping my swap patterns and fabric with Kate & Rachel from The Fold Line we headed into the Super Theatre for the 11am show. Somehow, we managed to end up in the second row which gave us a great view of the stage. It was a very enjoyable hour and definitely the highlight of the day. Hosted by Jenny Eclair, the format consisted of 3 ex Bee’s (Chinelo, Jenny and Lauren) paired with 3 audience members (one of whom was Sarah from Like Sew Amazing). 

They were given a shift dress to transform in 45 mins. While that was taking place, Jenny interviewed Patrick and Esme. This felt relaxed and not too forced (I didn’t wonder if they’d had the same conversation twice a day for 4 days while the show was on!). Patrick confirmed that talks were ongoing with a view to recommissioning the show for next year so fingers crossed! After that two more former Bee’s came on stage, Angeline gave a demonstration on different stitching seams and Neela displayed and talked about a dress she’d made. Finally, the judges came back on stage to critic the alteration challenge and the audience got to vote for our favourite (Lauren and her partner won).

As well as the Super Theatre (which you had to buy an extra ticket for) there were free events taking place, a fashion show, demo theatre, drop in clinic and a Liberty exhibition (photos later). You could have your photo taken as a cover star of Love Sewing magazine which was fun and there was an exhibition of some of the clothes made by Sewing Bee contestants.

The only time I'll ever be on the front of a magazine!

And, of course, there was shopping. I bought two pieces of fabric. First up is some light brown/grey wool tweed from Stitch Fabrics. This was £12 a metre and is for my Simplicity 1319 1950s jacket. I’ve already steam shrunk this fabric and started sewing!

The second was some soft brushed cotton from Fabrics Galore for £8 per metre which I’m going to use for some Carolyn pyjama trousers as the evenings are getting chillier now! I haven’t decided which colour piping I’ll use yet.

Overall I did enjoy the show but not as much as I thought I would. The Super Theatre was the best part but did cost an extra £5-£8 on top of your entry ticket. The shopping was good but I did miss a few of my favourite shops who weren’t there (Sew Over It & The Eternal Maker to name a couple). It was nice to see some new companies on stands, The Fold Line, Suzy Magazine, Fehr Trade and Guthrie Ghani (it was the first time I’d seen them in London). 

I'll leave you with some of the gorgeous dresses in the Fashion & Textile Museum display - they left me feeling very inspired! 

Did you go to The Great British Sewing Bee Live? What did you think?