Who's watching GBSB?

Here's my confession, I am not watching the Sewing Bee this year.

There I said it.

It's not that I'm over it, or that I take no enjoyment from it. It's more that I'm just enjoying other things more right now.

Didn't The Bee always used to happen in Spring?

That felt like the perfect time of year to watch a new batch of sewists tackle the increasingly frustrating, short on time, tasks. But late summer into autumn feels like I already have so much going on.

For those that don't know, I play a drum with Batala Lancaster.

August is a big gig month for us; Kendal Calling, followed by Edinburgh Fringe, and Notting Hill Carnival to finish it off, and they're all a full weekend commitment. It's not just that, we also learn a new, increasingly complicated song at this time every year, ready to debut at Notting Hill Carnival too.

We celebrated Dia de los Muertos as a band at Kendal Calling this year

There I am at Notting Hill Carnival

I'm also working an a new batch of sewing classes for release soon, which takes longer to arrange & set up than anyone might imagine.

Anyway, all this means I have a lot going on already, and The Bee has sadly fallen by the wayside.

Back to those Bee sewing tasks. What's with some of them?

The time limits have become quite annoying. Most sewists I know wouldn't make a whole garment in 3 or 4 hours, let alone a complicated one. One of the joys of sewing is taking your time to finesse those finishes and little details so when you meet up with your sewist friends you're not afraid to present for a closer inspection.

We've all been at our sewing machines, unpicking for the third time and thought "now's the time to walk away and resume tomorrow" haven't we!?

I miss when more time was given to snippets of sewing knowledge, or fashion history. I adore Amber Butchart's segments on the show, she's a hero of mine. It can't be just me that misses this, can it?

It all feels a bit like the producers want more drama, a bit more failure, a bit more for the judges to critique, but often what we get is "well it's obvious you didn't finish it did you?"

I know it's reality TV, and that does often mean the thirst for more drama, but that's not what we watch The Bee for. We watch it for the friendships that are created, the garments, and a little sprinkling of knowledge from two talented sewists/designers, and one amazing historian.

I also miss Joe, I miss Kiell a bit too even though he wasn't with us for as long (any Ghosts fans here at all?). I felt like they were as similarly invested in the sewists as us viewers.

So will I be catching up this year, or am I through with it?

The good news is, with the increasingly unpredictable weather, and shorter evenings, I will have a whole series to binge on should I decide to catch up later, so no spoilers please just in case! Other than that feel free to share your thoughts on this series or The Bee in general below.

Claire x