Oct 10, 2017

Highlights from the Great British Sewing Bee Live

Well, the Great British Sewing Bee Live has come and gone for this year.

It was a lovely event and provided a great opportunity to get good exposure for Sure-Fit Designs, as well as help people to understand that they can achieve great fitting clothes without having to adapt and alter every pattern.

If you recall, I finished the last blog (Let's Get Physical) with the question of how would we get everything into the cars. Well the answer was; we didn’t even try. We sat in a lovely English pub the evening before and the Committee decided that we actually would hire a van. This was booked before we had finished our meal (courtesy of the pub wifi), and what a good move having a van proved to be.



Whilst it delayed our starting out on the Wednesday morning it didn’t matter. We were still one of the early birds at the exhibition centre.

When we arrived there were still a lot of preparations being undertaken on various stands but ours was ready for us to set up. Unpacked and stand set up off we went back home ready for the early start the following morning.

Overnight the foam carpet in the walkways was added to the previously bare floor. This must have made walking round the show much more comfortable. Here is a ‘before and after’ of our stand. What a remarkable transformation!



Life on the stand was very busy. It was evident that customers who have never heard of the Sure-Fit Designs fitting and sewing system before needed to see a demo to understand it. This is why Glenda’s videos on YouTube are so important outside of exhibitions. It is also why I was really glad to have Heather on the stand every day and additionally Charlotte (both daughters) on the Saturday to actually serve the customers. I spent all day, every day, doing demo after demo and goodness the crowds that built up whilst someone was being measured and pattern drawn were incredible. The picture was taken at the very end of the last day so doesn’t have the crowds that were normally surrounding the stand earlier in the day.

We got very little time to see the show and exhibition in action since we were so busy teaching in our stand, but it was lovely to see the Liberty in Fashion exhibition and many of the actual garments that had been created in the BBC TV shows, before the exhibition opened to the public.

The following are 2 video links you might enjoy watching.

YouTube Liberty in Fashion https://youtu.be/coJ0Bz0F8ng

YouTube BBC TV Makes https://youtu.be/P2cr5TDruqc

The show was packed with opportunities for people to learn. The open live lounge and all the workshops were full and busy every day.

But for me, the highlight was seeing the garments that Glenda and I sent to McCall’s actually being modeled on the catwalk. It is a shame I cannot post the videos with the music (due to copyright restrictions) because the music really was very appropriate for the style of garments. I have however included a touch of it in the Dresses video. I was touched that immediately after one of the catwalks (which occurred 3 times each day) someone rushed over to ask for the pattern for the long dusky pink dress which some of you may remember was made for Heather last year.

Below are 3 very short video clips of the Sure-Fit Designs garments that were modeled in the daily catwalk.  You must take a look...Just click on the links below.

YouTube SFD Dresses https://youtu.be/I67vYt1qBHk

YouTube SFD Casual https://youtu.be/oEyjs3wTb1Q

YouTube Full Catwalk Show https://youtu.be/-ehdNhxueA0

It was a very memorable event for me being the first Great British Sewing Bee Live exhibition, having the opportunity to represent Sure-Fit Designs in the UK, having the pleasure of meeting so many of our SFD customers in person (some of whom I have only previously known by name and not by face) and also receiving such positive feedback from visitors…

..and now a rest…oh no, got to start preparing for the Sewing For Pleasure Exhibition at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre in March 2018.

Judith Johnson - Sure-Fit Designs distributor - serving the UK, Ireland and the EU countries.
www.surefitdesigns.co.uk

Thanks so much Judith for following up and sharing your Sewing Bee experiences with our SFD blog followers.  As I said before...sure wish I could have been there!

Glenda...the Good Stitch


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