This review contains spoilers for the final of The Great British Sewing Bee.
As the finalists of 2024’s Great British Sewing Bee readied themselves – stretching their needles? Flexing their thimbles? – for their last challenges, I summoned my last reserves of patience to sit through another hour of the nation’s politest show without driving tacking pins into my eyes.
For although this 10th season of Sewing Bee has been by far its most stylish, the show is stilted by its inherently boring structure – three challenges per episode, two judges whittling down 12 amateurs to one, and very little room for invention. This sort of television will never exceed just “nice” or “fine”. I understand that the series’ calmness and reliable sameness is part of its appeal – still, with nigh-on 100 episodes behind us, it is time to concede that the format has achieved all it ever could.
But before I bring the guillotine down on Sewing Bee’s lacy collar, there’s that final to attend to. First, the contestants were asked to sew a pair of opera gloves. With a gusset threading between every finger and a minuscule seam allowance, the task proved enormously fiddly. Notoriously precise student Pascha was uncharacteristically foxed, delivering not only two left-handed gloves but one with its thumb sewn upside-down.
Glaswegian events planner Ailsa’s glamorous black pair looked great, but her lackadaisical approach to the seam allowance meant the model couldn’t get her fingers in. Meanwhile, Mancunian diversity director Luke made the most functional pair of gloves and despite a minor hole or two, they were pronounced the winner of round one. Ailsa came second, while poor Pascha was last for the first time in the competition.
Next up was the transformation challenge, in which the finalists had to craft outfits from party paraphernalia. Ailsa’s dress made from bunting was both inventive and fashionable, but near-impossible to put on (it was wrapped around the mannequin, rather than sewn). Luke whipped up a pastel ensemble from napkins (pretty, but too delicate, as judge Esme discovered when she tried out the zip and ripped the back), while Pascha’s dress, draped in festive silver fringe and complete with Velcro fastening, balanced wearability with style. She was ultimately pronounced the second winner of the evening.
Flourishes like a cardboard bauble on the shoulder of Pascha’s dress, and one used as a bustle on Luke’s, only just tipped the outfits out of the realm of “novelty” and into thoughtful design, but no-one made anything truly inventive or surprising. Not for the first time watching this series, I found myself asking what the payoff for viewers was meant to be. If I wanted to watch amateur sewers make genuinely interesting, risky ensembles under time pressure, I’d watch Drag Race. If I wanted to watch experts compete at the top of their game, I’d watch Project Runway, or Making the Cut, or Next in Fashion. TV is not short on sartorial creativity — I suppose Sewing Bee’s USP is its gentle low-stakes, but from where I’m standing that makes things even less interesting.
There’s only so many times I can watch a plucky amateur sew something quite well, and with tonight’s episode I finally hit my limit. Yet I still had to make it through one last challenge. The contestants were asked to create made-to-measure evening wear for their own family and friends. Pascha made a red-carpet dress from pink taffeta, while Ailsa leant into her Scottish heritage with a kilt and draped waistcoat featuring her grandad’s sporran. Both ensembles were cool, ambitious, and well-designed.
But it was Luke’s half-blazer gown, which played with masculine tailoring and femme ruffles, that took the cake – and the crown, when they were pronounced the winner. Well done to them, of course, but thank God that’s over.
Each of this year’s finalists could go on to have careers in fashion, but the show’s focus on hobby-ists means it would have to change its parameters to follow them – outgrown by its contestants, and limited by its strict format, it’s time for Sewing Bee to bow out gracefully. This should be the final final – set these nice people free from arbitrary amateur-dom, and let me go and watch Drag Race instead.