Great British Sewing Bee

Over a week has gone by since the Sewing Bee left our screens and, although I was partly saved by the distraction of the MasterChef finals starting, yesterday evening just didn't seem quite right without it being there to tempt me into buying even more material and haberdashery items - I must remember that I only have a couple of shelves to keep my stash on, not an entire sewing room. Although I suspect I really do NEED a sewing room in my life, in reality I don't think that's going to happen any time soon unless I do actually manage to win the lottery.

Personally, I loved the show - I thought all of the contestants were great and I loved seeing the huge variety of garments that came out of all the challenges. It has definitely inspired me to try my hand at some dressmaking. It's something I've been saying that I'll do for ages but I haven't ever quite got round to doing anything about it yet, but I think seeing the lovely things that were made has convinced me that I need to give it a go. I'm fairly confident at using my sewing machine for simple projects so it's time I stepped out of my comfort zone.

With all this in mind, and to ease the Sewing Bee withdrawal symptoms I went out and treated myself to the book that accompanies the series, which is full of beautiful projects and helpful information so surely with that as my companion I really can't go wrong (she says with fingers very firmly crossed!).

I've decided I'm going to start with a collared blouse, and have got this lovely material....

to make it from. I've got a couple of other things I need to finish before I start this (trying to be good and not have too many things going on at once because then I tend not to do any of them justice!) but I'm really looking forward to seeing how it goes. Wish me luck!