It’s lingerie week on the Great British Sewing Bee. This week the sewers are dealing with delicate fabrics and first up is stretch lace bras.

I can’t imagine sewing your own bra – although I guess it could be handy. I have a few friends who struggle to get bras that fit properly. I’ve had more than one BBQ conversation about the difficulties of finding the right bra (how expensive they are when you find them). When I saw what the sewers were making I thought “maybe I could do this for people…” Having watched this challenge – so not happening!

I love lace but sewing with it? It so delicate and fiddly, adding stretch to that? No thank you. I need to get a lot more experience under my belt before I try anything this complicated.

I think the boys may be at a disadvantage this week. I suspect lingerie isn’t going to be something they’ve made for themselves in the past. Or I could be wrong – maybe they have…

We’re starting to see a bit more of the sewers now They’ve started to settle in.

Tracey’s definitely growing on me this week. I don’t always agree with her taste (that horrific blue top with the lace curtain from week one has stuck with me) but I love her attitude and some of things she’ll say. At some point I’ll figure out who she reminds me of.

Josh is just endearingly honest. Not many blokes would have so openly admitted how little attention they pay to bras. The last few weeks he’s just scraped through, let’s hope he starts to pick up a bit.

Angelline’s been a bit mixed. She seems to do amazing at the things she wants to sew but on this challenge the picot elastic really scuppered her. Wasting all that time unpicking meant she was the only one not to finish her bra. I thought the judges were surprisingly mild given it was held onto the mannequin with pins. Can you imagine Paul Hollywood being that nice to a baker who ran out of time to ice their cake?

Jade’s bra had a few issues too – slightly lopsided and the back looked a bit of a mess. 

Everyone else seemed to do quite well on this challenge, the odd twisted strap aside. The main issues seemed to be with straps and any gathering or pleating they had to do to get it to fit together. Joyce’s did look perfect though.

On to alterations. We saw slightly more variation this week. Maybe they’re starting to get a bit more confident in chopping up items of clothing.

My favourites in this challenge were Angelline’s and Tracey’s camisoles (after dissing Tracey’s taste a few minutes ago). Rumana’s twisted top was an interesting idea but didn’t really work in practice. I’m not entirely sure what Josh was trying to make, but then I’m not sure even he knew. Jamie didn’t have a good challenge either. If his first waistband had fit, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but the stirring elastic really didn’t work. Not up to your usual standard Jamie!

For our final challenge – made to measure luxury robes. I love the made to measure challenges, you really get to see part of the sewers’ personalities. Plus they always make beautiful garments.

So far I’ve loved Angelline’s made to measure items. I want both the skirt from week one and an adult version of that cape. This week she’s done it again – that red robe with the lace and billowing sleeves is just gorgeous.

Jamie, Jamie, Jamie… That robe could have been great, but I think time was just against him (and that fabric). He just tried to do too much and then everything started to go wrong.

Other than Angelline’s, my favourites from this challenge were Jade’s (I agree with Esme on the fabric), Rumana’s and Josh’s. I think he saved himself again with the final challenge. 

For the first time Angelline’s didn’t win garment of the week. I wasn’t surprised Charlotte won, she put so much work into finishing everything perfectly. And the end result was stunning.

No more Jamie! I never saw that coming, I thought he’d be in the final. He took it really well though, he knew he’d had a nightmare week and sometimes that’s all that it takes.

So three down, seven left to sew again. Next week the sewers go international (and apparently Claudia auditions for the Marvel Cinematic Universe). This could be interesting…

P.S. Sewing Top Trumps needs to be a thing!

Summary of week three:

• Thing’s I’ve learnt:
  • That’s what picot is!
  • Always, always read the pattern
• New projects to add to the list:
  • Angelline’s dressing gown