Season 3 of the Great British Sewing Bee kicks of tonight, here are the sewcialists who are participating

The third season of the Great British Sewing Bee (GBSB) kicks off tonight at eight (well, kind of). Whether televised sew-offs are exactly your thing, or you merely enjoy people frantically trying to keep their shit together under a load of stress and cameras, you’re good either way.

The series brings the same trusted recipe. A bunch of sewing challenges that you really should have more time for, a jury that includes dreamboat Patrick Grant who will be showing off his new swanky moustache (and his nice suits obviously), and last but not least, a bunch of amateur sewing peeps who will battle it out for eternal fame and glory.

There’s 10 contestants on the show, and we’re excited that five of them are part of the Sewcialists community. Four of those are even featured on the Sewcialists firehose.

If you’re looking for a favourite in this year’s GBSB, here are the candidates who are part of the Sewcialists family:

Alex from London

Alex is the one you can see ripping apart some poor fabric in the official trailer, and overall looks like she is not to be messed with. Don’t worry though, I know Alex and she’s super nice. On top of that, she was the first one to sign up for the firehose, and I secretly suspect her from putting the other ones up to it. (Obviously, that is a good thing)

Want to find out more about Alex? She tweets as @Sewrendipity, blogs at sewrendipity.com and has her profile as Sewrendipitous Alex on the firehose.

Deborah from Manchester

Deborah takes the crown for best screengrab from the trailer. Nothing really captures the frantic effort of the contestants as that shot of her where she seems to be ready to take a bite out of Patrick Grant (who can blame her). Don’t let those fangs fool you though, she is lovely.

But don’t take my worth for it, find out yourself: Deborah tweets as @DFabricate and blogs at dfabricate.blogspot.com. She’s on Pinterest, Google Plus and Flickr too, all that info and more via DFabricater on the firehose.

Neela from Surrey

Neela is on a mission. As a matter of fact, she puts the mission in “planning permission for an extension to the house“, just so she can have more space for sewing machines. Yes, you read that correctly, this lady is serious about her sewing. And she scores extra points for proudly displaying the Sewcialists logo on her blog, custom colours and all!

Neela’s blogs at sewfusion.co.uk and she’s on Twitter as @Sew_Neela_Bakes. For more info about Neela, including a link to her Facebook page, head over to neela on the firehose.

Matt from Berkshire

Did I mention that there are 4 male participants in this season of the GBSB (Yay for more men sewing!). Matt is the kind of guy who is just as comfortable with a sewing machine as with a bunch of power tools. He gets teased by his buddies for his sewing hobby, so it’s a bold move for him to thrust himself on the GBSB scene like this.

Matt blogs at sewwhatsnew.co.uk and tweets as @sewwhatsnewcouk. For these and more links, including his Pinterest account, check out Matt Chapple on the firehose.

Paul from Cheshire

Paul had me at “men aren’t well represented in the sewing world“. Amen brother. With 30 years of sewing experience, and a self-proclaimed frustration at the monotony of men’s clothing, my expectations are high.

Paul does not (yet) blog about his sewing escapades, but his Twitter handle is @SewingMan4Men, so you he’s legit Sewcialist material.

Wait there’s more

I’ve only highlighted some of the candidates who are already part of the Sewcialists community. The others are obviously also a lovely bunch, and might very well be Sewcialists without me knowing it.

Best way to discover them all is to tune in to the series. Tonight will be a recap of season two, so you’ll have to wait until next week to see the fresh faces.

In the meanwhile, there is The Great British Sewing Bee: Series 3 Launch Trailer to watch, the official BBC page of the program, and there’s a post over at thesewingdirectory.co.uk with more info on the different candidates. On social media, #GBSB is the hashtag to look for.

This is going to be fun 🙂

Update: Amanda from Darlington

Shortly after publishing this article, Amanda joined our ranks, so I wanted to make sure I included her in our little overview.

Amanda likes patterns and mathematics, and wants to teach children to sew. So obviously I already like her.

Amanda’s blog lives at aebgledhill.com a she tweets as @SewDeputy. All this and more info is also available here: Amanda at the firehose