FILMING15th/16th September 2019
AIR DATE20th May 2020
CHALLENGEPattern Challenge – Boned Basque
TIME ALLOWED3.5 Hours
POSITION5th out of 8

This is the third week where I have had no experience with the theme. Lingerie and sleepwear week. The only sleepwear that I had made before was a dressing gown that I had made for my Dad, he was really happy with it, but it wasn’t something that I rushed to make in five hours!

The pattern challenge was to make boned basque. Now, I had actually made a couple of corsets before, I wouldn’t say they were my greatest work, but it did mean that I had worked with boning before and had experience sewing those fiddly boning channels.

“Your top stitching is uneven, and we can see the hooks and eyes” – Esme

The cups and the rest of the basque went together well, and even the boning went in OK. There were lots of giggles about boning with Joe, we couldn’t help ourselves! The trickiest bit was the hook and eye tape, and I think we all struggled a bit here. The instructions weren’t entirely clear and it was very confusing. I got it in, even if it was wrong!

The great thing about the Sewing Bee is that although there is a bit of competitiveness we all want each other to do well, and are happy to give a helping hand to others. Terese was having trouble with her hook and eye tape, so I showed her how I did mine. Of course, mine was sewn incorrectly and therfore so was Terese’s. I tried to help!

It wasn’t a bad effort, but if only I read the instructions better and kept to the seam allowance that it said, it may have fitted the mannequin better. I felt for Peter on this challenge. There were so many pattern pieces, it would have been easy for any of us to leave a couple of panels out at the back. This was a tough one, I needed to up my game at the next challenge.