SEW exciting!

Ahead of the grand final, all four semi-finalists tell TV Times about their Sewing Bee journeys...

- REBECCA FLETCHER

THE GREAT BRITISH SEWING BEE

WED, 9PM, BBC1 REALITY

After nine weeks of clever cutting, sublime sewing, and terrific transformations, it’s time for judges Esme Young and Patrick Grant to crown the 2022 champion of BBC1’s The Great British Sewing Bee.

It won’t be easy to separate the remaining stitchers, who face fiendish challenges in Party Week, including making one of Esme’s iconic Swanky Modes designs – the amorphous dress – and a red-carpet-worthy jumpsuit.

Here, in case you are reading this before the final three competitors have been revealed on screen by host Sara Pascoe, TV Times chats to all four semifinalists about their time in the famous Sewing Room…

DEBRA

PERSONAL ASSISTANT, 51

Did you think that you’d get to the semi-finals?

No! I knew from the moment I arrived that the calibre of contestants was high, so I was just happy to get through each week.

What’s been your favourite challenge?

The Halloween costume Made-to-Measure Challenge [for Children’s Week]. I still laugh at how scared everyone was of my Miss Havisham-inspired model!

And the biggest disaster?

My 1930s bias-cut dress [for the quarter-final]. I cut it incorrectly, so the diagonal seam didn’t match, and then I re-cut it wrongly again! I thought I was going to cry.

Do you feel more competitive with the final in sight?

Not with the others, but more with myself. I always want to do better than the week before.

What would being in the final mean to you?