I know I’m a bit late to jump on the bandwagon of the third book to be released in conjunction with The Great British Sewing Bee, but I bought a copy last week – no more sneaky free books for me now I no longer sell books 😦

As everyone else has said, this is the best of the 3 Great British Sewing Bee books – I have all 3 (reviews of book 1 and book 2). This one was written by Claire-Louise Hardie, who is the sewing consultant on the show, runs a sewing studio in Stoke Newington and has a blog and website called The Thrifty Stitcher.

This book could easily be picked up by a beginner and has lots of useful tips, such as what equipment you need:

And tips on tracing patterns (as you have to do for the patterns included in the book):

The book is arranged in chapters by fabric, starting with cottons – each fabric type gets a glossary of fabrics within the type and also tips on how to sew the fabrics.

The patterns included in the book also include variations, giving you many more patterns and also allowing you to develop extra skills in designing your own wardrobe.

The sleeveless shell top has a button backed variation.

There are a few patterns for children, including the shirred dress the contestants made on I think series 1 of the Sewing Bee.

And it has a variation for adults – yay!

The jumpsuit is kind of okay, if it didn’t have the frill on, though I have the By Hand London Holly Jumpsuit to make, so I’m not sure I’ll make this one. I do like the casual trousers variation, though (as made by Rachel at House of Pinheiro)

The kilt pattern is included – I’m not sure my fella would wear a kilt (and he would even less wear cargo shorts or a plain t-shirt, which are the other men’s patterns in the book), but it would be cool to have a go at one!

There is also a leather jacket pattern, which I found a bit disappointing – I felt like some of the ones the contestants made were better patterns, and in previous books they have included actual patterns made. Oh well, I’ll  have to look for a different leather jacket pattern for that time, probably like 8 years in the future, when I finally get around to making a leather jacket (which I’m not even sure would be my style!).

There is also the lace skirt pattern in the book. I’d be interested to sew with lace one day, but I don’t really like the idea of a lace pencil skirt for some reason. Not sure why.

In the stretch fabric chapter are a couple of my favourite patterns from the book.

The knit dress with the fold details:

I think I’ll try to make it more of a straight shaped skirt to make it a bit less 80s, which isn’t really my style.

I also really like the slouchy knit cardigan, and I particularly like the woven fabric kimono cardigan version – the fabric they’ve used is really pretty.

I’ve got a week off work in a couple of weeks and am planning to MAKE ALL THE THINGS and try sewing with knits for the first time. I’ve been collecting jersey fabric for a while and plan to try a few different patterns to see which I like the most. If course, I’ll probably get about a fifth of what I hope actually made. Does anyone else massively underestimate how long it takes to make things and then get disappointed with your progress in a weekend/ day off? Or is it just me? Maybe once I’ve got more me-mades in my wardrobe, I won’t feel so compelled to make about 100 things at once!? Maybe I need to recreate Sewing Bee conditions to try to make things quicker!?