The Great British Sewing Bee : Are you up for a challenge?

About 4 or 5 years ago now, I started to think I may in fact be a sewing genius. There was absolutely no reason for me to think this, and no evidence either, but that didn't stop me! I started to daydream about all the beautiful little bits and pieces I would be able to quickly stitch together, and the creations I could fill my wardrobe with, and I thought that if I just had a sewing machine, I would soon discover a hidden talent for sewing.

My lovely husband, brother-in-law and parents-in-law surprised me with a sewing machine one Christmas and I was so excited. I treated myself to a subscription to Sew magazine, bought (quite) a few sewing books - ranging from how to sew sock animals to clothes - and a variety of other accessories and since then, I've made the grand total of, ooooh, 2 tote bags? Turns out I have a not so hidden talent for procrastination along with a big old streak of perfectionism instead.

In the last few months, I had started to feel that it was time to pack everything away and accept that I was probably never going to pursue this interest, and it seemed like the right decision to make. But then The Great British Sewing Bee burst onto our screens and all of a sudden, I started to think that maybe, just maybe, I could actually sew something. I mean, look at Tilly, she started sewing 3 years ago and she's only a few years younger than me.

Jump forwards to Tuesday just gone and there I was, watching episode 2 of TGBSB and live tweeting away with some of the usual suspects when I find myself saying "shall we give it a go? challenge ourselves to make one thing each?" and that, dear reader, is how what I am now calling The Great Twitter Sewing Bee Challenge began.

If you're like me, and many others, who dream about being able to sew but for whatever reason - lack of time/a fear you'll be rubbish at it/a worry you don't really know what you're doing -  you've never really given it a go then this is the challenge for you. It's all about popping your sewing cherry and the "rules" are very simple:

1. You have until 8 May 2013 to make and sew 1 item of your choice

2. You can sew anything - an item of clothing, a toy, a bag - whatever takes your fancy

To keep motivated, I will be checking into twitter between 8pm and 9pm on 16 April 2013, 23 April 2013 and 30 April 2013 and chatting about my progress using the hashtag #gbsb. I'll probably then do a big reveal of the finished item here on my blog on 8 May 2013 - if I'm organised enough that is!

If you do fancy getting involved, leave me a comment and let me know how I can keep in touch with you. I'm generally around on twitter most days and you can find me here so if you want to send me a tweet about how you're finding the challenge, I will be more than happy to provide words of support and encouragement.

Let's get sewing!