Am I the only one who’s slightly obsessed with the Sewing Bee? Well to be honest it’s not just the Sewing Bee, I’ve watched the Bake Off since series two and I loved the Pottery Thrown-Down. Who doesn’t love a competition where one of the judges cries every week? Now admittedly the sewing bee isn’t quite so innuendo-laden as the other two, but it’s at leastly partly responsible for inspiring me to start sewing. 

Watching this year is a little different as now I’m looking for hints and tips, and sometimes I even know what they’re talking about now. After last week’s episode I now know that I don’t want to have to cut or sew on the bias anytime soon and I should never cut the length of a circle skirt by eye. I’ve also decided I’m never sewing with georgette.

This week on the sewing bee is children’s week. With a four year old goddaughter and two year old twin nieces, I really like the idea of making them something unique, so I’m paying close attention to what the sewers make this week.

First up is Babygros. Out of everything you could make for children, sewing babygros has never occurred to me. Just the thought of sewing something so tiny is more than a little daunting. Can you do babygros for ten year olds? I might be able to manage that size.

Personally, I thought most of the babygros were quite good. Charlotte’s looked almost professional and I really like Jamie’s as well, even if he did get into trouble for the using wrong binding.

Poor, poor Ghislaine – she just had a nightmare. Everything that could go wrong, did. Even Patrick didn’t know where to start…

Then we had the alteration challenge – that’s just mind boggling to me. How can you look at those bridesmaid dresses and see children’s outfits?

This year’s sewers don’t seem to be quite as adventurous in this challenge. After last week’s array of skirts, we had a row full of party dresses. Let’s hope they’re just getting warmed up and we’ll see a bit more variety in future.

Personally, I quite liked Josh’s little gilet. Yes it didn’t even vaguely fit the mannequin, but when everyone’s work was lined up that was the one that stood out to me. And Ghislaine managed to redeem herself a bit with that very cute little boxing outfit ( wasn’t there a very similar outfit in last year’s children’s week?).

For the final challenge we moved onto capes. Not sure how many kids actually wear capes but these were very cute. I suspect there may be some capes in my nieces’ futures – if I’m ever brave enough that is.

There were a few stand outs for me in this challenge. Angeline’s red and tartan cape was just beautiful. Can she do an adult version for me too. Jamie’s Sherlock Holmes inspired cape was fairly impressive as well. All that kid needed was a deerstalker, violin and pipe.

Ghislaine didn’t do well again. Was it just me or did the scallops on the cape not match her template? Maybe she should have gone with a pattern after all.

I don’t think anyone will have been surprised that Ghislaine went this week. Not even the mini boxer’s outfit could save her. 

So next week we can look forward to the sewers making lingerie. Looking at the preview clip – I think I agree with Jade!

Summary of week two:

• New terms learnt:
  • Bagging out – love that expression
  • Bouncy seams…
• New addition to my project list:
  • Two wool capes with tartan godets (and possibly appliqué butterflies) – how does that sound girls?