The Great British Sewing Bee

Claudia Winkleman hosts a new eight-part series of The Great British Sewing Bee.

Under the scrutiny of Savile Row's Patrick Grant and Central St Martin's Esme Young, ten fresh-faced home sewers face three challenges designed to test their skill and understanding of basic garment construction. First, the sewers follow a pattern for a woman's top made up of four pieces. However, it is deceptively difficult, demanding accurate pattern matching skills, a steady hand for cutting and precision sewing.

Next, the judges want their personal style and imagination to come to the fore by transforming a maternity dress in just 90 minutes. Finally, they take on the Made to Measure challenge, fitting a skirt to a real model. Who can keep their cool to produce a flattering waistline and perfectly level hem, and who will falter and be the first to leave the sewing room?

Nine amateur sewers return hoping to show judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young that they can make beautiful clothes on a miniature scale. First, the sewers must carefully follow a pattern to make a babygrow from stretch cotton jersey - but who will get the gusset and poppers in the right place and who will end up going off-piste?

Next, the sewers must show they can handle slippery satin and chiffon, by totally transforming an adult bridesmaid dress into a wearable garment for a boy or a girl. For the final challenge, real children replace the mannequins as the sewers strive to create perfectly fitted woollen capes, knowing the judges will scrutinise every cut and stitch before deciding who deserves to stay and who must bid farewell to the Sewing Bee.

Eight sewers return to the sewing room to take on delicate lingerie. The three demanding challenges require the sewers to work with the fiddliest of pattern pieces and the most delicate fabric.

First, they follow a pattern for a bra which proves testing for even the most dextrous of sewers, requiring precision engineering and some of the smallest pattern pieces ever seen in the sewing room. Next the sewers get their hands on some charity shop silk scarves which they have to transform into a piece of lingerie. Finally the sewers make luxury robes for their male and female models. It is a challenge that requires a delicate touch, an exacting eye for detail and a fastidious feel for fit.

It is 'international week' as Patrick and Esme set the seven remaining sewers the challenge of tackling techniques and garment styles from other cultures and continents.

First up, they face a fiendishly hard-to-follow pattern for a Chinese Qipao-style top. This complex garment has an asymmetrical neckline, fiddly zip insertion and is made in a fabric that frays - not a challenge for the faint-hearted.

After battling with brocade, things don't get any easier on the fabric front as, for their alteration challenge, they are tasked with transforming saris. By repurposing yards and yards of beautifully draped, embroidered georgette, the sewers have just 90 minutes to create totally new, wearable items of clothing with a distinctly eastern flavour.

Finally, for the 'made to measure' challenge, the judges take the sewers to an entirely new continent - Africa. Using vividly patterned wax print fabric, they attempt to create West African inspired dresses. Figure hugging garments that demand impeccable fitting skills and an understanding of how this robust printed cotton can be used to create a dramatic, accentuated silhouette.

This week, the sewing room is transported back to the 1960s as the six remaining sewers revive vintage garments, take on time-honoured techniques and wrestle with antique equipment in an attempt to show Patrick and Esme they deserve a place in the quarter-finals.

For their first challenge, the sewers are asked to follow a pattern for an iconic 60s colour block dress. With multiple panels and clean, crisp lines required, precision is everything. For their alteration challenge, the sewers take a classic 1960s rainmac, but trying to make a wearable garment from PVC is no mean feat. For the made to measure challenge, the sewing room goes from squeak to chic as the sewers try to create impeccably fitted, flawlessly finished 1960s-inspired jackets. There are only five places in the quarter-final and with such a labour-intensive, tailored item as a jacket to perfect, the stakes have never been higher and achieving the perfect sew has never been harder.

Claudia Winkleman hosts the quarter-final of the Great British Sewing Bee, where the five remaining sewers sweat it out over activewear, creating complex, hard-wearing garments from the most technical of fabrics.

For the pattern challenge, judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young ask the sewers to make a man's Lycra cycling top, which requires expert handling of a fabric that stretches in all directions and a complex zip insertion that tests their patience. Next, for the alteration challenge, the sewers use all their ingenuity to transform garish 1980s ski suits into children's jackets. Finally, the made to measure challenge sees the sewers create the most fitted garments ever attempted on the Sewing Bee - yoga outfits - to secure one of four places in the semi-final.

Claudia Winkleman hosts the semi-final of the Great British Sewing Bee, where just four sewers are left to battle it out to for a place in the final.

All that stands in the way are three challenges designed by judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young. This week, they want to test the sewers' knowledge of complex patterns and pattern cutting. For the pattern challenge, the sewers are tasked with making an asymmetric yoked skirt inspired by modern Japanese pattern cutting. This brain-teasing pattern requires the sewers to stitch one of the most technically difficult and curved seams ever seen in the sewing room.

Next, it is the alteration challenge and the sewers are asked to transform a duvet cover into a female garment. To add to the difficulty level, the judges declare it is a no-waste challenge so every scrap of fabric needs to be used by draping and sculpting it around the mannequin. How will the sewers cope with this radical approach to creating clothes?

For their made to measure challenge, their ability to draft and create patterns is put to the test as the judges seek to draw out the sewers' inner designer. Creating their own patterns in the sewing room, as well as constructing and fitting their dresses is the sternest test yet of their all-round sewing skill and their ability to imagine clothes, but who will flourish and who will fail to make the grade so tantalisingly close to that place in the grand final?

Claudia Winkleman hosts the grand final of the Great British Sewing Bee. Having made it through seven weeks of tough sewing challenges, the three finalists fight it out for the title of Britain's best amateur sewer. But first, they must create three pieces of evening wear to impress judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young.

First up is the pattern challenge, in which the sewers demonstrate their precision by creating an immaculate man's pin-tucked dress shirt. Next is the alteration challenge. They must use all their sewing ingenuity and imagination by taking a classic tuxedo and transform it into a little black dress. For the final made-to-measure challenge, the sewers make floor-length evening gowns for a model of their choice. Who has the ability to handle the most delicate, luxurious of fabrics and show off their advanced technical skills under intense pressure?

Across the three challenges, the judges will choose one sewer who has shown themselves to have all-round ability, attention to detail and vision for beautiful clothes. For the announcement, the other sewers return to the sewing room, joined by the finalists' friends and family to see who will be crowned the winner.