Great British Sewing Bee 2025 – Episode 5 – 'Reduce – Re-use and Recycle'
- Amy Budd
- Aug 13
- 3 min read
This week’s episode of the Great British Sewing Bee 2025 was right up my street! (Every episode is for obvious reasons but this one especially so!) It was all about reducing, re-using and recycling – basically avoiding waste and waste is one of my pet hates in all aspects of life! If you are a dressmaker yourself, you will know that most sewing patterns come with inherent waste as you cut out your pattern pieces, there are always a few annoying bits of fabric leftover which you never know what to do with! So I was really interested to see how each of the challenges addressed this overall issue.
Great British Sew Bee 2025 – Pattern Challenge – Zero Waste Jacket
The contestants had four hours to draft, cut out and sew together a zero waste jacket – that’s a challenge if ever I heard of one!! The difficulties were obvious right from the start because on opening the pattern envelope there was only two small pattern pieces which meant that they had to draft the rest themselves directly onto their fabric. One minor error in doing that could put the whole pattern out of quilter – as Patrick said …"if you cut one piece too big, another one will be too small!" So the pressure was on and I really felt for them all!
Once they had done the cutting out there was no relaxing as they had to then contend with top stitching, collars and buttonholes. After four hours, they all had a jacket to present to the judges with just a few bits here and there that they hadn’t manage to get to – so impressive – I’m sure after that time I would have still been deciphering the drafting instructions!
Although I am passionate about reducing waste, I have to say that I have never tried a zero waste pattern before. There are increasingly becoming available these days but to date I haven’t seen one that catches my eye in terms of personal style. Generally I do like my clothes with a minimum of ease and most zero waste patterns I have seen are quite ‘blousy’ with lots of ease and not particularly fitted. Having said that, I am interested in seeing what is out there and trying the technique. Here are some zero waste dressmaking pattern suggests that I found in case you’re thinking the same!
https://drapersdaughter.com/collections/patterns/products/birgitta-helmersson-zero-waste-workwear-jacket-pdf-sewing-pattern - The Zero Waste Workwear Jacket – similar if not identical to what the contestants made.
https://thefoldline.com/products/cris-wood-sews-casita-dress-pdf - the Casita Dress from Chris Wood Sews.
https://www.clothkits.co.uk/collections/zero-waste-pdf-patterns/products/bow-top-hack-pdf-for-zw-cropped-shirt-birgitta-helmersson - The Bow Top shirt from Birgitta Helmersson.
https://www.birgittahelmersson.com/pages/book - A full book of zero waste patterns from Birgitta Helmersson.
https://criswoodsews.com/products/casita-dress-instructions-pdf-download-copy - The Garden Dress by Chris Wood Sews
https://thefoldline.com/products/birgitta-helmersson-zw-cropped-shirt-pdf - A cropped shirt from Birgitta Helmersson
Great British Sewing Bee 2025 – Episode 5 – Alterations Challenge
The alterations challenge is always my least favourite of the three but still enjoyable to watch. This week the contestants had to make a festival outfit from an old tent! Not something that I think I will be doing anytime soon but well done to them all for coming up with an idea and implementing it with such a random material, in such a short period of time!
Great British Sew Bee 2025 – Episode 5 – Made to Measure Challenge
This week’s made to measure challenge involved the contestants gathering old clothes from their own wardrobes and that of family and friends to re-create something new in the spirit of sustainability.
There were some really touching and in places, funny, (Caz’s reference to the crotch on her partner’s jeans!), stories attached to each of their makes and some wonderful creations. Jess made a lovely red and white dress with personal connections to her mum, Kit created a brilliant denim dress using old jeans from friends and Dan sewed up a great black and gold number which you could see had an emotional attachment. Another great challenge and so sad to see someone go home – I won’t spoil the surprise for you!
Before I go for this week, It would be remiss of me not to use this opportunity to plug my Etsy shop! Dress By Amy Snippets on Etsy is based on the principle of re-using and recycling. I save as many of my dressmaking and sewing fabric scraps as possible and use them to make beautiful fabric covered buttons, bias binding and other handmade sewing accessories which can be put to good use by other sewing enthusiasts. See the link below for a look!
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