Det Store Symesterskapet, episode 6 – Semi Finalen!

Jeg har fått tilbakemeldinger fra bekjente som kun snakker engelsk at de setter veldig pris på de engelske oversettelsene, så da fortsetter jeg å skrive på Engelsk for denne og neste episoden ihvertfall.

Yesterday it was really hard to fall asleep after watching the show! I knew it would go well, but I didn’t know how nervewrecking it would look. I mean, I definitely knew I was close to not finishing and that the tiniest mistake could ruin that, but I think I was actually less stressed than the judges at some points. It’s like I just turn off the stress and work, and then whatever happens happens. I can’t really change the outcome, so stressing won’t help!

Anyway, back to the beginning.

The first top went well. It was really really annoying to sew! Although I’ve sewn with silk before I usually don’t cut it on the bias, and I prefer silks that are sand washed or in other ways treated or woven to be less shiny (read slippery!), so that was quite a challenge. I thought it was GREAT that Ida managed to catch up with us all and win
that challenge despite cutting wrong in the beginning. In that challenge she definitely did like “Petter Northug” 😉
It was also nice that the two girls beet the two boys! And Tine Solheim seemed to like that fact as well, haha.

In the redesign challenge we had to make a party garment out of old football jerseys! We could use up to 5 jerseys, but in the end I only used one. I was happy with what I did. Yes, I didn’t quite finish, but it was more finished and better sewn than my redesign things usually are, (I really tried to limit mself!) and I think it looked good! The most annoying thing here was the straps! If we had had more time I would have just pinned them on, taken the top off the bust, sewn them on the machine and put it back on the bust, which would probably have been faster, but I didn’t want to risk taking it off because it has to be on when the time stops, so I did it by hand instead..

Either way, as I said on the show, if I don’t come last and I’m happy with the design myself, then that’s what matters the most to me in that challenge.

The judges worrying about the amount of pieces I have to cut and sew

For the third challenge I was quite nervous at first. For one thing I had like 17 pattern pieces, plus lining, while the others had
5-7 plus lining, so I knew I had to be VERY quick. The hardest thing was actually cutting everything. I had marked all my pieces with the correct colours etc,  but it was still a real puzzle to get the right piece, in the right direction on the right colour, and if had messed up the direction of just one of those pieces I wouldn’t have had enough fabric to cut another one!

I guess it was really dumb to use those tiny scissors for cutting in the beginning, but I was seriously worried about ruining my fabric scissors on the sequins, (anyone who sews would understand that!) especially because I didn’t know what fabrics we would be given to work with it the following week, should I get that far, what if it was a silk chiffon or something? That would be an absolute nightmare if my scissors were ruined… but I’m glad Tine got me to change as there’s a big chance I wouldn’t have finished other wise 😛

I was very relieved when I pinned the pieces to the bust and saw that I had cut everything correctly

I used a comb to pull the fur out of the seams. I also trimmed the fur onthe bottom seam allowance so it wouldn’t pull through and get bulky

In the end Andreas says I had planned 3 buttons. That’s technically correct, but only two of them would actually have been on this coat. My original design had a collar, and one of the buttons would have been on the collar, but I decided to skip the collar because it looked cooler without it. I actually spent a lot of time deciding if I should add the collar or not, pinning it on and off the neck trying it on the model, making her spin in every direction etc 😛 But, it looked better without, so I scrapped it!

The method I used for lining the jacket is quite effective, it’s called “bagging” and it’s a bit confusing at first, but quite fast once you figure it out. I might have to make a tutorial about that later on 🙂

I thought Marius coat was absolutely fabolous and I think he might have gotten mesterstykket if he had finished it. We will never know!

If anyone is interested my faux fur was bought at Rainbow Textiles in Oslo 🙂

At this stage I am just really really happy to have made it to the finals. That was my main goal. I didn’t want to be sent home, and I didn’t want to miss out on any of the challenges!
Now, whatever happens next week I know I will get to finish the race!

Oh! And by the way, the dress I wore at the beginning is one my grandmother had in the 70’s. I talked to her last night after the show and she was quite excited about seeing her old dress on TV 🙂