We’ve been eagerly awaiting the 2023 series of The Great British Sewing Bee, and loved watching the first episode last Wednesday! We finally got to meet this year’s sewists, and see the theme for the first three challenges.
It’s on weekly on BBC 1 at 9pm – if you miss it, you can catch up on iPlayer when it suits you.
Not sure what the Sewing Bee’s all about? Check out our recent article.
This year’s sewists
BBC/Love Productions, James Stack – GBSB Series 9.
Left to right: Maria, Tony W, Lauren, Lizzie, Vicki, Catherine, Fauve, Matthew, Gillie, Mia, Tony R and Asmaa.
This year’s 12 contestants are all amateur sewists with a passionate for creativity and making their own clothes. Here’s a bit more about them:
Asmaa lives in Cardiff but was born in Iraq where she learnt her love of sewing. She’s a consultant breast surgeon and has even sewn specialist underwear for her patients!
Catherine is a motorbiking, BAFTA award-winning video games designer. When Catherine bought her first home, she invested in a sewing machine and has been sewing ever since.
Fauve is a trainee solicitor and top golfer, living in Swansea. The sewing bug bit 5 years ago when she went to a sewing class and made a peg bag – from that moment she was hooked.
Gillie lives in Nottingham and is a huge Nottingham Forest fan. Her sewing style takes inspiration from Coco Chanel, and Yves Saint Laurent.
Lauren started to sew by making a quilted memory blanket using her children’s baby clothes. She moved onto children’s wear and taught herself to sew through online tutorials.
Lizzie is the creative director of her own graphics company, making short films and animations. She paddleboards in Bristol dock, and likes making clothes for her active lifestyle and for work.
Maria is originally from Costa Rica and moved to Scotland when she was 8, where she now works as an A&E nurse. She loves the fast-paced nature of her job, but sewing helps her unwind after a busy shift.
Matthew‘s tailoress Nan taught him how to sew, and he still feels connected to her when he sews today. He’s influenced by Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and fashions from the drag scene.
Mia is this year’s youngest sewer, and started sewing during lockdown after her mum bought a sewing machine. Mia also crochets, making stained glass art and pottery.
Tony R used to enjoy crocheting and knitting and 3 years ago, after changing careers, he decided to pull out his wife’s sewing machine to sew a bag for his knitting. He now makes himself cycling gear, and garments influenced by 90’s skater fashion.
Tony W is a primary school teacher in Essex. He was inspired to try sewing after watching the first Sewing Bee. He started by hand sewing, and now mainly sews patterned shirts and tailored waistcoats for himself.
Vicki is a police dispatcher living in Lincolnshire. Sewing has given her an escape and release from what can be a stressful job. Vicki also loves knitting, crocheting, reading, drawing, and painting.
SOURCE: GBSB’s Twitter page
Don’t read on if you haven’t watched Episode 1 yet – this article has some spoilers in it!
After this lovely photo of the GBSB judges I’ll talk in more detail about the first episode, so don’t read on if you’re not ready to hear what happened last Wednesday!
BBC/Love Productions – GBSB Series 8
Episode 1
Similarly to the previous series, the sewists faced three different challenges, organised around a theme. For this first episode, the theme was classics with a twist.
Pattern challenge
The first challenge was to make a twist top made from 5 pattern pieces. It looked initially like a relatively simple top, but it had a twisted feature in the centre front, and needed to be finished with french seams. This mean the sewists also had to use french seams around armholes, testing their technical skills against the clock.
French seams can be tricky at first, especially around curves and corners, but they create give garments a lovely, luxurious feeling. I often sew french seams when making shirt and blouses, or anything slightly silky!
Look out for our upcoming blog tutorial on how to sew a french seam!
Gillie and Catherine’s sleeve placement didn’t go entirely to plan, and the short challenge meant they didn’t have enough time to correct it. Asmaa won the first challenge for her impeccably neat seams with a tricky, drapey fabric.
Transformation challenge
Using old corporate wear – shirts and pencil skirts – the sewers have just 90 minutes to transform second hand items into an outfit that demonstrates their personality and creativity. They need to use both a skirt and shirt in their transformation.
The judges wanted a dramatic transformation – seeing the sewists totally transform the office garments into something completely different.
Matthew won for a creative, Viv Westwood inspired shirt – half cut away with harness-like straps.
Made to measure
The last challenge of this episode was a dress with cut-out details. The sewists had a chance to practice at home, but this was the first time they were meeting their model.
They had just 5 hours to fit a pattern of their choice to their models.
Lauren’s cut-out linen dress | BBC / Love Productions | SOURCE: GBSB’s Twitter page
Tony chose a stretch fabric, giving himself a difficult challenge. Three sewists went for the same pattern, but styled it in a completely different way – Lauren let the design speak for itself, and kept it looking neat and elegant in a plain linen.
Who went home, and who won garment of the week?
Tony’s garment of the week | BBC / Love Productions | SOURCE: GBSB’s Twitter page
Tony’s stretch cut out dress was the clear winner for the judges for garment of the week. His made to measure showed skill in dress making and pattern fitting – it was tailored to his model perfectly.
It’s always hard to see someone go home, but having run out of time to fix her blouse in the first challenge, and her made to measure being slightly less finished, we said goodbye to Catherine.
Catherine | BBC / Love Productions | SOURCE: GBSB’s Twitter page
What’s happening next week?
It’s holiday week next week! Tune in on Wednesday 31 May to follow the sewists along for their next three challenges. What do you think we’ll see in holiday week? Possibly bucket hats and swimwear? We’re looking forward to it. I’m especially hoping to see some technical sewing using 4-way stretch swim fabric. Check back next week for our take on it!
One last thing..
‘Sewists’ or ‘sewers’, which do you prefer? I’ve always liked ‘sewists’ personally, to avoid any confusion with the other pronunciation of ‘sewer’..!
See you soon,
Lorna x
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve partnered with Tree Nation, the platform to reforest the world & fight climate change! Home to over 90 planting projects in 33 countries, Tree Nation is a non-profit organisation that helps people & companies offset their CO2 emissions.