Today has been the first day of One Week One Pattern 14 and I am really looking forward to being involved in an event with the on-line sewing community.

As I was putting on my Sorbetto and thinking about what I would say in my round up blog, I remembered  that the fabric was left over from my Great British Sewing Bee – the work version so thought that I should do a catch up blog about that.

Break time in my school is the only time of the day when we get ten minutes to sit and chat with our colleagues.  We are a funny bunch and tend to sit with the same group of people. My particular chums were all huge fans of The Great British Sewing Bee and decided to run our own version.  We chose the same pattern, asked the textiles teacher to be our judge and gave ourselves the May Half Term to complete our task.  It was SO much fun. I had only bought my sewing machine at Easter, another Bee literally bought hers to take part in the sewing bee.  We wore them all on the same day the first week back.  Our judge had really thrown herself into the spirit of things making her own dress, devising a mark sheet with judging criteria. There was an overall winner and individual categories – which surprisingly each of us won one of.

The report of our successes and short-comings were written up and appeared in the week’s school newsletter.  We were each given a prize – a pin wheel in  a handsewn case made by our generous judge Heather in the material she had used for her own dress.

We enjoyed it so much it could become an annual event – what about you?  Could you run a sewing bee in your place of work?