The Great British Sewing Bee will be on BBC 1 at 9pm starting on the 24th May 2023. There will be ten episodes in total, airing weekly. In The Great British Christmas Sewing Bee, the celebrity sewers include Rev Kate Bottley, actors Antony Cotton and Kiell Smith-Bynoe, plus presenter Anneka Rice. The first challenge will be to sew a Christmas jumper, followed by transforming a charity shop bundle into fancy dress outfit before creating dresses from Christmas past. Episode 6 –In the sixth episode of The Great British Sewing Bee series 8 the contestants are challenged with Music Week. Find the sewing patterns used by the contestants here. Sara Pascoe says: "Very high. Even more impressively, lots of the sewers only started relatively recently! We have some very interesting people, a really good age range [from 20 to 73] and lots of people with really important jobs. We've got a breast surgeon, a nurse, a police dispatcher and a postman!"

Esme Young joined The Great British Sewing Bee as a judge in 2016. She studied at Central Saint Martins and also teaches pattern cutting there. She is co-founder of fashion label Swanky Modes and a costume designer, working on films such as Bridge Jones (the bunny outfit!) and Trainspotting. Swanky Modes gained iconic status in the 1970s and celebrities including Cher, Julie Christie, Grace Jones and Toyah Wilcox wore their designs. The designs were featured in magazines such as Vogue, The Face and Honey along with newspapers like The Sunday Times. Esme looks for good sewing skills with careful attention to detail. She also likes interesting design details and contestants expressing their personalities in their makes. She is a keen seamstress herself, making many of her own clothes. Esme wants to encourage more people to take up sewing as a skill and hopes that the sewing bee will let people see it is achievable. Episode 8 –In the seventh episode of The Great British Sewing Bee series 9 the contestants are challenged with 1930s Week. Find the sewing patterns used by the contestants here.Episode 8 –For episode eight the theme was Music and Movies week, making garments inspired by the silver screen. The challenges included making a dress inspired by Baby from Dirty Dancing, adapting old curtains into play clothes for children, just like Julie Andrews’s Maria in The Sound of Music, and a made-to-measure disco era outfit inspired by the movie Dreamgirls. Find the sewing patterns used by the contestants here.

The location of the Sewing Bee studio used to be in London at the Metropolitan Wharf in Bermondsey, but in 2021 the production moved up North to Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley, Leeds. The 2021 Festive Specials and Season 8 have been filmed at this new location. Grandmother Gillie is the oldest contestant in the competition. She started sewing when she was seven and once had a Saturday job at a French fashion house while living in Paris. Her sewing style still takes inspiration from French designers like Coco Chanel and Yves St Laurent. Debra began sewing at aged 9, making outfits for her dolls. She is inspired to sew by designers such as Erdem, Gucci and Chanel. She enjoys being active and can often be found sailing and snorkelling off Anglesey. Mum Lauren started to sew with the help of online tutorials when she decided to make a quilted memory blanket using her children’s baby clothes. She also makes clothes for kids and enjoys classic styles in a neutral colour palette. Fauve is also a top golfer, who has represented Wales in the Home Nationals. She only started sewing five years ago when she joined a sewing class and made a peg bag. At the home she shares with her mum, dad, brother and nan, she has a small ‘sewing cupboard’ where she makes puff sleeved feminine dresses.Matt– Broadcast engineer from London, 43. He recently started sewing in 2017 and started by making his own dress for a drag party. He makes clothes for this partner and friends alongside menswear for himself too. Ghislaine, 43 is a fellow Londoner and likes to sew garments for herself Great British Sew Bee book review – series 4 (2016)