ooooh. I love YouTube. Finally, a reality show for home sewers! The Great British Sewing Bee. The first episode has been bootlegged and placed online. They let you use patterns in the competition and actually just care about construction and skills. It’s *wonderful*. Ann Rowley from Stitcher’s Guild is on there too.
I devoured this epi while visiting Michigan again. It’s not snowing on this visit! Plus, apparently, it’s Hash Bash Weekend on campus.
Apparently, the police ignore the marijuana laws for Hash Bash weekend. Let’s just say there are a lot of characters out. Between that and Final Four weekend, it’s a perfect storm of nonsense, lolz.
Miss Celie's Pants 
And they get to use patterns?! Yeah… I would totally try out for this show if there is ever an American version. Oh, and I’ve been watching Ann Rowley’s sewing for years.
Thanks! It looks like they’ll post future episodes for a limited time on BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0165nj8/episodes/guide
This is pretty awesome 🙂 I recognized Ann Rowley as soon as I saw her in the opening remarks, in her sewing room.
Oh, thanks for that link. And halfway through I had to carry my iPad into my sewing room and cut out a pair of pants while watching. I thought, “Why am I hanging about till tomorrow? It’s obviously possible to sew fast!”
I hadn’t heard about this new series so thank you for calling attention to it. I love the approach, “real world” sewing challenges. This is fun to watch.
Did Lauren make a Colette Macaron there? Glad to see independent patterns on the show!
Thank you for posting this. I tried to watch it yesterday, but couldn’t get it to unlock. Can’t wait for the next one. Fun!
I know! I hope ppl keep uploading to youtube for those of us with out of UK restrictions.
The Hola extension for Chrome will allow US viewers to access ALL the wonders of BBC. You may thank me later 😉
I will thank you now!!
Sadly, it looks like BBC has plugged the Hola gap 😦 So it’s back to trolling youtube and google if we want to watch British sewers face off.
Oh my gosh. This is my show. It’s so great. Thanks for posting this. Sigh. I’m guessing there isn’t a US market for this. Maybe HGTV or PBS… We could all try out for this.
I started watching and exclaimed – It’s Ann Rowley. She’s one of my great sewing heroes – thanks so much for the link! (And enjoy hash bash! We were sober grad students who never participated – but it was always fun to hang out on campus that weekend.)
Of course having all my little sewing goobers pointed out on TV would suck.
How cool is this! Thanks. I really enjoyed watching this.
Thank you!! Yay now I can watch it too 🙂 I hope they put all the episodes up.
I hope this turns up on BBC America. I enjoyed watching your link, though! Go Ann!!
Thanks so much for posting this! I had known about it and was mourning the fact that we couldn’t see it here in the US. I hope we will continue to be able to access it!
Oh my goodness thank you so much for sharing that episode!
This is the best! Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait to watch more. I hope there is a US show soon.
This was wonderful – or I should say “Brilliant!”. I also recognized Ann right off the bat – she is just as kind on the show as she is at Stitcher’s Guild! Could you please alert us to links of more episodes as they come up? I am so challenged in this area – but I never miss one of your blog entries! Love, love, love this show!
The next programme will be exactly one week after the first and so on.
Thank you for posting this link…. I LOVE this show! And, I now I feel like I should be working a little faster in my sewing room – 3 1/2 hours for a skirt. OMG!
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing!
thank you so much for posting this. i wanted to watch it but didn’t think i could. crossing my fingers they continue to appear on you tube.
Thanks a bunch for posting as I was scouring net the day after trying to figure out a way to watch.
I stumbled upon this, too-accidentally earlier this week. There’s a UK craft site that I found that is really advertising this….not to mention so many sewing and crafting resources. There’s a blog (I have it on another computer) where they have some of the episodes with some of the projects. I’ll come back and try to post it. 🙂
Yippee!! I have so wanted to watch this. Huge thanks for posting!
I am already ridiculously invested in the contestants. I love Mark, the steampunk. And of course Ann. And Tilly, and Sandra and all of them!
It’s like a nicer Project runway. And I’m also getting good stuff out of the critiques, they’re much more on point than PR’s.
Thanks for posting this. I really enjoyed it. I hope they post the rest of it. It’s lot’s of fun.
This is such a cool show. Too bad about the restrictions! This first episode cemented the fact that I need to slow down and do simple projects to build my skill. I almost watched it twice 🙂
It’s a great show! Also I’ve heard good things about this proxy server and they have a free trial subscription: https://www.proxysolutions.net/proxy-services/
Oh lovely find. I really enjoyed it. I like the runner girls piping, etc and this how makes me think I should sew simpler items and learn to do them fast.
It’s on youtube? Awesome! I’ve been so bummed that we weren’t able to watch it here in the States. Thanks for sharing!
That was a good show, Take That! Wide World of Sports and Fishing Today! I could imagine this would bore the socks off anyone who isn’t interested in sewing or clothing. As a thank you I will mention my ITV Youtube find: Bob and Rose with Alan Davies. Use the xbobandrose channel.
Thanks for sharing this. I really enjoyed watching. This show is like a Project Runway not on crack. Much saner, much more doable challenges.
Just finished watching and I want more!
Oh – please keep posting bootlegged versions of this show.
This is what I wanted project runway to be.
Ok so Holy Awesome! What a brilliant idea and you would be a great host! AND I SO want to be a contestant. It would be sew fun!