Thanks for joining us on this recap of the 2023 Sewing Bee’s third episode! This week the sewists celebrated West Africa, exploring the iconic batakari, Àdìre fabric and boubous.
They were joined by Lagos-based fashion designer Banke Kuku, whose luxury designs have been on the red carpet and catwalk. It was great to see a designer with so much experience, whose makes and statement prints are inspired by both London and Lagos.
If you missed the second episode you can catch up with our recap and swimsuit ideas post.
Pattern challenge
This week’s pattern challenge is the Ghanaian Batakari – a traditional men’s dress in a smock shape, using gorgeous strips of woven fabric (daboya cloth).
The placement of the neckline is made by cutting a hole in the middle of the fabric, rather than being built into the pattern pieces. This meant that if the neck placement wasn’t in exactly the right place, the whole garment would hang askew.
The sewists chose colourful lining fabric for their pockets, armholes and neckline facings.
Asmaa’s neatness earned her first place in the challenge – demonstrating her characteristic attention to detail. Maria ran out of time to double check the placement of her neck opening, which left the garment asymmetric.
Transformation challenge
The sewists were given traditional Àdìre fabric, and asked to drape fabric on a form instead of cutting pattern pieces. The fabric was beautifully printed, with each design telling a story.
Àdìre is a tied-and-dyed indigo textile, traditionally made and worn by the Yoruba people of south-western Nigeria.
Patrick pointed out that there was some natural stiffness to the Àdìre, which would lend itself well to architectural lines. The judges wanted to see some experimentation with draping, and to have fun creating drama with the lovely fabric.
Designs that did better, like Lizzie’s and Lauren’s, created intentional drama, while also being elegant. Lizzie won the challenge with her spotty, asymmetric dress for her excellent draping and celebration of her fabric.
Made to measure challenge
This made to measure celebrated the boubou! It’s known for airy shape, and has to be comfortable. The fit itself is simple, so the sewists were tasked with finding something special in the fabric. They could use silk or lace for a glamorous boubou, or make it more casual with printed cotton.
Lizzie opted to seam together lots of panels of bamboo silk in a variety of complementary colours. Maria had a difficult time with her lighterweight fabric. Asmaa was hand basting lace onto satin – a beautiful finish but very time consuming. Vicky spent time neatly pattern matching.
Mia’s boubou was stunning – her fabric choice really emphasised the volume of the dress, giving it structure but also moving beautifully as the model walked. The shoulderless pattern really worked with the amount of volume in the bottom half of the dress.
Lizzie french seamed her panels, with every detail carefully considered. The shades of silk were strikingly beautiful, while still delivering on the brief of an easy, breezy shape. Lizzie won garment of the week.
Sadly they had to say goodbye to another sewist – this week Maria went home. In the end, it was the quality of her finishing which meant she left the competition. It was a tough week though, and everyone created beautiful garments!
Next week..
It’s reduce, reuse and recycle week next week, including zero waste trousers!
Check back in next week for our episode 4 recap.
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.