Last week’s theme on Sewing Bee was ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ week, where the sewists worked on no-waste patterns and championed reusing discarded materials. It’s important to bear these principles in mind all year around, although it’s always good to see the Bee highlighting fun ways to achieve this in the themed episode.
In this post I recap the last episode, and also share some zero-waste sewing pattern ideas!
Don’t read on if you haven’t watched Episode 5 yet
I love to follow along the episodes with weekly recaps and pattern suggestions, so don’t read on if you don’t want to see what happened in the last episode.
The pattern challenge
The judges chose a no-waste workwear jacket pattern for this year’s ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ week. ‘No’ or ‘zero’ waste patterns are where every piece of fabric from the meterage is used to make the design. There are no scraps or awkward offcuts! Some maths is often involved, though, which caught some of the sewists out.
The transformation
Every year after we see fields of discarded tents after summer festivals. Some are rescued by crisis charities, but lots of material goes to waste. The Bee brought attention to that this year, and tasked the sewists with creating some festival wear from abandoned tents.
Tents have lots of different technical fabrics (mesh, rope and zips), which enabled the sewists to get very creative for this challenge!
The made to measure
This week’s final challenge was inspired by the wartime ‘Make Do and Mend’ campaign, which encouraged people to repair their clothes during times of rationing in 1942. It’s a great principle that should go beyond wartime, to value the resources we already have.
I loved the jumpsuit Caz made! She created it from cut up scraps of her husband’s gardening jeans, creating a truly original and stunning make:
Zero waste pattern ideas
When I think of zero waste patterns, I immediately think of the sewing pattern designer Birgitta Helmersson. She’s created some beautiful designs, all minimising or totally eliminating fabric waste. She now has a book out.
Cris Wood also champions low waste and size inclusive patterns, and demonstrates how to use your own measurements to draw out your pattern pieces. Have a look at their patterns here.
What’s happening next week?
Tune into BBC1 at 9pm on Tuesday 19th August to see Children’s week!
Want to sew along with the Bee?
The Sewing Bee always inspires people to start creating their own wardrobe. Seeing the contestants experimenting with different fabrics and styles is a lovely way to think about how you might tackle your own projects.
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve partnered with Tree Nation, the platform to reforest the world & fight climate change! Home to over 90 planting projects in 33 countries, Tree Nation is a non-profit organisation that helps people & companies offset their CO2 emissions.