The Great British Sewing Bee!

Source: bbc.co.uk/sewingbee

I am sew(!) excited about this new programme on BBC2 called The Great British Sewing Bee. It is a sewing competition where each week the contestants are given challenges to make or alter items of clothing. Episode 1 the challenges were to make an A line skirt using a pattern they were given, alter the neckline of a simple white top then finally make a ladies day dress to whatever design they liked.  The programme is made or created (or something like that!) by the people who make The Great British Bake Off which is one of my favourite programmes. You can see my attempt at making one of the cakes from the Bake Off here. The show also has little films about the history of sewing and tutorials on simple projects. It is the kind of show I like and reminds me of Projects Runway/Catwalk and The Next Great Artist. I really want to get into making cloths so I will be watching keenly over the next few weeks to pick up loads of tips! In fact I’m off to buy some dressmaking patterns now, I’ll post up my attempts when they’re done!

P.S. If you want to watch, The Great British Sewing Bee is on BBC2 every Wednesday at 8pm!

Next Great Artist 2nd Series!

Yay! Sky Arts must be reading my blog because after saying how much I would miss watching The Next Great Artist, they have decided to show series 2. It only started last Wednesday (I only found out after it was on but the first episode was on Anytime!) so this time I have let you know in time for you to watch it. This season they all have strange names like Dusty, Jazz-Minh and best of all The Sucklord (yes, The Sucklord) In the first episode the artists had to take a bad piece of kitch art and turn it into something else that showed off their own unique style. None of the pieces really jumped out at me so I guess it’s too early to pick a winner! It is on at 8pm on Wednesdays on Sky Arts (hurray!)

Next Great Artist

Image from skyarts.sky.com

Tonight is the last episode of a great programme I have been watching on Sky Arts. Next Great Artist is just the same as Project Runway but (surprise, surprise!) with artists instead of fashion designers. The idea is, each week the artists are given a brief and must complete a work relating to that brief in a set amount of time. The piece is then put into a gallery show where the programmes judges decide who is the winner and who’s “work of art didn’t work” for them (the loser has to go home). In tonight’s final, the three remaining artists have to put on a gallery show. I’m not sure what the theme/brief/rules are yet as there was only a short clip last week. I only guessed one of the finalists which was a bit of a shock, so it will be interesting to see how the other two cope in the final. It’s on tonight on Sky Arts 1 at 8.00pm. I am excited and sad at the same time (I hate it when my favourite TV programmes end!) but my money is on Miles to win. I think he is the judges favourite and he comes across as some sort of young, tortured, artistic genius! Saying that I have liked the concepts behind some of his work, so I don’t mind too much if he does win!

It remind me of another programme on Sky Arts a while ago called Art of Survival, where two teams of two artists and musicians had to travel from Athens to Edinburgh using only their art. They could earn money from busking or sales, or could barter for things like food and accommodation. It was really good but I would definitely be too scared to do it!

Update: 27th April 2012

So I’ve finally watched the last episode of Next Great Artist after having a fight with my Sky+ box! And guess what? I got it wrong! Miles came last, but I sort of thought that he might after seeing his finished work. Peregrine came second and I thought she would win after seeing her finished pieces. The winner was Abdi! I liked his large scale sculptures, but I wasn’t so keen on the negative colour paintings. Overall I really enjoyed this series and I hope they make another one (but not a British version because I hate it when they do that! It’s never as good as the original and visa versa when they make a British show in America. It’s just not the same!)