The Great British Sewing Bee: Sustainable Style – Caroline Akselson, Alexandra Bruce

With Foreword by Patrick Grant & Esme Young

Description: The companion book to the sixth series of this flagship BBC show, The Great British Sewing Bee: Sustainable Style accompanies sewers at all levels on their creative journey to reduce, reuse and recycle – ultimately creating their own considered closet.

Starting with the essentials, sewers will learn how to maintain and care for their sewing machine, find out the secrets to using an overlocker (and what to do if you don’t have one) and the key to pattern matching. With a guide that demystifies the fitting process, and with expert sewing tips on making alterations, you’ll be able to choose from a number of projects, for both women and men, that will ease you into the world of sustainable sewing.

For burgeoning dressmakers, this book showcases a vast array of sustainable and natural fabrics, reveals how to breathe life into old garments and entices the would-be sewer to dress handmade. Interspersed with sustainable tips, from advice on keeping an eco-friendly sewing space and how to better care for your garments, to guidance on recycling old clothes, using up fabric scraps and making repairs, this book is an indispensable reference to a more considered approach to sewing, that will encourage you to create long-lasting projects to cherish.

With womenswear sizes ranging from 8 to 22 and menswear sizes ranging from XS to XL, along with five full-size pattern sheets, expert sewers Caroline Akselson and Alexandra Bruce cover everything you need to build your sewing repertoire and grow in confidence as you sew yourself sustainable.

Buy now from Waterstones

Review
The Great British Sewing Bee is back on our screens, and this is the perfect companion to the series. The emphasis this year is about sustainability.

In his Foreword Patrick Grant states:

‘We can all chose to act differently. As individuals we have the power to encourage and enact positive change. If you watch The Great British Sewing Bee, then it’s likely that you know more about textiles and clothing than the average person. You are very well placed to be an actor in this change. Make the simple decision to slow down your consumption, buy fewer but better pieces, invest in clothes made from the best natural fabrics, made by people paid a fair wage. Repair your clothes, learn to love a darn and a patch, alter them, pass them on. And when they wear out, take that precious fabric and make something new from it. Waste nothing. Value everything.’

This book is aimed at the confident home sewers, throughout the book there are lots of tips and tricks that you can introduce to make your sewing more sustainable, whether that is by choosing fabric produced in an environmentally friendly way, using off-cuts to minimise waste, re-using buttons, zips and other haberdashery items from clothes that are too far gone to save, or the way you wash your clothes.

Esme Young in her Foreword explains how The Great British Sewing Bee has embraced this philosophy wholeheartedly,

‘ For me, one of the highlights of the series has always been the 90-minute transformation challenges – and boy have we given our contestants some weird and wonderful challenges over the years. I relish their inventiveness and the way their individual styles shine through, even when they are up against the most severe time constraints.’

The content includes the following:

Foreword by Patrick Grant & Esme Young
Introduction
How to use this book
Sewing Kit
Getting Started
Sizing
Fabrics
Sustainable Sewing
The Projects

The authors assume readers have the basic skills and so it does not go through the basic techniques, although there is information on more advanced or specialist techniques, such as shirring and inserting a fly zip, where necessary. It contains some full-size garment patterns, some of which are from the television series and some of which are brand new.

If you love The Great British Sewing Bee and are inspired to create your own projects, you will love this book! Highly Recommended!

The Great British Sewing Bee: Sustainable Style Caroline Akselson & Alexandra Bruce with Foreword by Patrick Grant & Esme Young. Published by Quadrille Publishing