A week ago the folks over at Sew Mama Sew announced they were hosting a sewing contest online in the spirit of The Great British Sewing Bee called The Super Online Sewing Bee.
Well, I had heard about The Great British Sewing Bee while perusing Gertie’s blog a few months back. I took her advice to immediately watch all 4 episodes via You Tube, and like all of us in the sewing community, fell in love with the show and the idea.
I really hoped that someone in the US would put together something similar, but I didn’t expect it to manifest so fast. But, the folks over at Sew Mama Sew aren’t playin’ around :-). They partnered with Janome and several fabric companies to offer some great gift certificates for fabric and an amazing grand prize of a new Janome Horizon MC8900, which as far as I can tell, is the Cadillac of Janome sewing machines. Man, that baby looks sexay!!! Rwah!
I digress. Anyway,
They put out a call for contestants and will choose 10 lucky participants to compete in the Super Online Sewing Bee. The lucky chosen ones will be notified tonight via e-mail and the contest begins tomorrow! But, to add an AMAZINGLY AWESOME level of super coolness, there will also be a community sewing bee for the applicants not chosen (click here for more information).
The contest consists of 5 rounds and 5 patterns with time limits and eliminations for each round (click here for the official rules). Based on the information provided thus far and who the pattern designers are, it looks as if one handbag from U-handbag, two children’s garments from Oliver + s and Whipstitch, and two adults garments from Sewaholic and Colette Patterns will be the challenge pieces.
There was also a mention under the contestant requirements that the participant “be willing to sew garments for adults and children, women and men,” so one of the adult garments may be for a woman and one for a man. If I am right, then my guess is the Negroni from Colette Patterns will be making an appearance. I could be wrong, though, so don’t quote me!!!
I have put my name in the hat and am hoping to receive an e-mail tonight informing me I have secured one of the 10 coveted spots in the sewing challenge. But, if not chosen (most likely), I will certainly play along in the community bee. Based on the pattern companies chosen here are the patterns I would most like to sew:
The Pinwheel Tunic + Slip Dress from Oliver + S
The It’s a Cinch Tote from U-Handbags
The Overmost from Whipstitch Patterns
It is a harder choice to choose when it comes to Sewaholic and Colette Patterns, as I already own several patterns from their collections . I have sewn
The Renfrew by Sewaholic
and I own, but have not sewn
The Thurlow by Sewaholic
I REALLY want to sew
The Robson Coat by Sewaholic
Buuuut, maybe not for the sewalong. I don’t want to have a time limit on this project.
If The Negroni is NOT the chosen Colette pattern, then hands down my choice is
The Rooibos by Collete Patterns
I don’t currently own this pattern, but it is on my list. I have sewn the Meringue Skirt from the Colette Sewing Handbook
which, by the way is an AMAZING sewing “how to” book. If you are interested in learning to sew or learn to sew PROPERLY, pick up this book. You will not regret it. I am also finishing up
The Hawthorn by Colette Patterns
for the ongoing sewalong (future blog post coming).
So, those are my choices for patterns, if it were up to me, and I will be keeping my fingers crossed for that e-mail. Wish me luck!
The Seeds of 3 
Oh wow! I’ll keep everything crossed for you Melanie, it sounds great, if a lot of hard work! (Winning that lovely sewing machine would be awesome!)
I watched the GBSB, but I was frustrated by their focus on making ‘good tv’ instead of teaching some good sewing techniques, I thought it was a lost opportunity really. At least the best candidate won, IMO.
Thanks Fiona! Maybe the second season of GBSB will focus more on sewing techniques. I hope there will be a way for me to watch them in the US.