Sewing Bee

I was watching the final of the Great British Sewing Bee last night.  I was entranced.  Interestingly so was DH.  He loves watching experts using arcane techniques.  To us, the techniques seemed pretty arcane.  

One thing that struck me was how expensive it could be.  Just to equip the shelves with fabric must have cost thousands, even at trade rates.  I don't want to put anything about the final in case anyone reading hasn't seen it but wants to, but in earlier episodes there were dresses and outfits using things like silk that would have cost a fortune just for a metre.  I've haunted a few fabric stalls and shops for stuff for soft furnishings and I don't think much that they used was less than £10 a metre.  

I watched the stuff with awe, but while I am tempted by the pretty colours, I know my limitations.  First of all, I am scared of sewing machines.  I never in the few terms I had sewing lessons managed to thread the thing right, then it would shoot away from me.  There was also the stand up screaming match between my mother and the sewing teacher about the correct way to interpret a pattern, it didn't really help.

Then neither bear, DH or father would ever wear anything I made.  When you can get some reasonable t-shirts for bear for less than I would pay for the cloth it seems silly to try and sew for him.  As for me, I have an interesting figure which would need all sorts of alterations to patterns and I can still pick up clothes cheaper.  I love knitting myself sweaters, but I can't usually find the ones I like for a reasonable price anyway, so it is not so bad.  

I still fancy having a go though.