We're passionate about sewing and dressmaking at Sew Me Sunshine, and we love watching the Great British Sewing Bee every year. Every week we will break down the episode and sign post you to some sewing patterns and fabric.
The Great British Sewing Bee is back for 2024 and this year marks it's 10th season! We wish all the contestants the best of luck and know they will make some incredible garments.
This week we are looking at episode 8 which was Diva week. The contestants were tasked with making a fringe dress, upcycle animal print fabric and sew a stage outfit for their favourite diva.
Pattern Challenge: Fringe Dress
The first challenge was inspired by Tina Turner's iconic fringe dress. The contestant's were tasked with making their own fringe dress.
The contestants had 8 pattern pieces and 11 metres of fringe. First the darts were sewn and the side seams stitched up to create the shell of the dress. Then 7 rows of fringe were attached with a double layer at the top. Next straps and a facing was added and finally an invisible zip was inserted to finish the dress. We have had a search online and found a pattern that you could use to make your own fringe dress at home - Simplicity S9297.
The contestants used duchess satin for their dresses, you can find all of our satin fabrics here. You can also find all of our trims we have in stock here.
Fact: Duchess Satin has a high read count and is medium-heavy in weight. It is stiff and heavy due to the tightly woven structure. It has a shiny surface and holds a garment's shape well. It can be made from a variety of fibres - silk, polyester, rayon + blends.
Top Tips On Sewing With Fringe:
- Fringe is created by a series of cording loops, so when cutting fringe, make sure you cut between the looped strands
- Work out what side is your right and wrong side before you start your project
- Start sewing fringe at the hem and move upwards
- When you start at the hem place the fringing and fabric right sides together with the fringe pointing upwards. Sew this on using either a straight or zig zag stitch as close to the braid before the fringe starts. Then with the fringing pointing down make sure to topstitch it
- Subsequent fringing can be sewn with the wrong side of the fringe facing the right side of the fabric, and this can be sewn using a straight or zig zag stitch
- You can apply fabric glue to the end of each of your fringe trim to close those raw edges
- Make sure you use lots of pins when attaching your fringe and take your time when sewing
- Make sure the fringe doesn't get stuck in the braid
- Fringe length varies and depending on the desired look you may want lots of layers of fringe or only a few. As a rule of thumb it is good to have each layer of fringing overlapping by half. You need to decide what your desired look is before you start sewing as you need to use erasable pen or chalk and draw on lines on your garment for where your fringing will be attached
- If you need to insert an invisible zip after you have attached the fringing it is always a good idea to either use tape or clips to keep the fringing out of the way to prevent it from being caught when sewing in your zip
Fringe trim from Kleins Haberdashery.
Transformation Challenge: Make loungewear for a Diva from animal print garments
In the up-cycling challenge the contestants had to transform some animal print garments into loungewear for a Diva. They were able to choose up to 3 garments and were asked to make statement loungewear pieces. Everyone's ideas were unique and creative so we aren't able to signpost to specific patterns or fabrics.
If this challenge has inspired to sew using animal print fabrics, then you can find all of our animal print fabrics here.
Made To Measure Challenge: Stage outfit for a Diva
In the made to measure challenge the contestants were tasked with making a stage outfit to fit their model that was inspired by a Diva of their choice. All contestants made incredible stage outfits and the contestants focused on a variety of Diva's -Orville Peck, Lady Gaga, Shania Twain + Beyonce. The contestant's used a wide range of different fabrics, haberdashery and hardware for their makes that it is difficult for us to signpost to specific fabrics. If you are wishing to know about any specific sewing patterns that the contestant's used then we highly recommend that you check out this blog post from the Fold Line.
