The Great British Sewing Bee

The Sewing Bee is back with brand new host Joe Lycett for eight weeks of brainteasing patterns, spectacular transformations and stunning made-to-measure outfits. Savile Row's Patrick Grant and Central St Martin's Esme Young scrutinise every stitch as ten of the country's best home sewers take up a needle and thread and tackle everything from jumpsuits to swimsuits to evening gowns.

They are eased in gently with cotton fabric, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. For their first pattern challenge the judges have chosen a Dior-inspired ‘wiggle dress' designed to hug the female form. It requires precision and accurate darts, and any diversion from the instructions could result in an ill-fitting garment.

Next their design skills and sewing instincts are tested in the Transformation Challenge, when the sewers are tasked with transforming three second-hand items of denim clothing into a single, stylish new garment in just 90 minutes.

For their final challenge, the mannequins are gone and replaced with real live models who the sewers must flawlessly fit with a made-to-measure jumpsuit. Who will achieve the perfect body rise, avoiding the dreaded camel toe? Who will create clothes worthy of Garment of the Week? And who will drop a stitch at this early stage, becoming the first to leave the Great British Sewing Bee?

Joe Lycett hosts as the nine remaining home sewers return to the nation's most famous sewing room for children's week. The garments might be mini but they are a mammoth challenge being fiddly to sew.

To test the sewers' dexterity, judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young kick off the pattern challenge with a wardrobe staple of every child – a hoodie. The task requires a tricky combination of hard-to-handle stretch fabrics, small pattern pieces and getting to grips with the ruthless overlocker which cuts the fabric as it sews. Next, in the transformation challenge, the sewers let their imaginations run wild, turning faux fur coats into fantastical fancy dress beasts.

Finally, the Sewing Bee welcomes dancing mini-models for made-to-measure dance costumes. These must be perfectly fitted but allow enough freedom of movement for the dancing children to perform the Hornpipe, the Tarantella and Highland dancing down the catwalk. Who will tango their way to the top and win garment of the week, and who will stumble, becoming the second sewer to leave the Great British Sewing Bee?

With Joe Lycett hosting, the eight remaining home sewers head back in time to the 1970s, attempting to revive the glamorous, rebellious and sometimes ridiculous style of the decade. This is more than a stroll down memory lane as they tackle the decade's most fiddly, floaty and anarchic garments.

First up, judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young challenge the sewers to get their groove on with the trickiest pattern so far, flared jeans. Creating the perfect bell-bottomed trousers involves grappling with vintage machines, heavyweight fabrics and taking on such daunting technical hurdles as the zip fly and flat-felled seam, hopefully without getting in a flap. For the transformation challenge, fabric flies and anarchy rules as the sewers let rip with their imagination, turning t-shirts and tartan into provocative punk-inspired outfits in just 90 minutes.

In the made to measure challenge the sewers take on their final icon of 70s fashion, the maxi dress. Working with sheer, slippery fabrics, they must create a form-fitting bodice and floaty skirt that embodies the glamour that makes the maxi dress popular to this day. Who will boogie their way to garment of the week, and for whom will 70s week signal the end of an era, as they become the third sewer to wave goodbye to the Great British Sewing Bee?

The fabrics in the haberdashery go technical, as the seven remaining home sewers take on man-made fabrics designed for sport and the great outdoors. Host Joe Lycett keeps spirits high, as the sewers jump in at the deep end, with a pattern for a lined swimsuit. Containing so many seemingly identical pieces, it's a challenge that throws the sewing room into confusion, with a great deal of conferring, before judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young offer their brutally honest feedback.

Next, the transformation challenge arrives with a surprise, as instead of garments, the sewers are presented with discarded festival tents. What's more, a dashing dachshund becomes the sewers' muse, as they attempt to transform old tents into stylish, practical winter coats for pooches, to be displayed on dog mannequins.

For the final challenge, male models arrive in the Sewing Room to be fitted with made-to-measure luxury tracksuits. It's double the work for the sewers, who attempt to create both trousers and jackets, using scuba, mesh and micro-fibre. But who'll deserve a podium finish, winning Garment of the Week, and who'll fall short of the mark, becoming the fourth sewer to leave the Great British Sewing Bee.

The fashion industry is the biggest polluter of our planet next to oil, so for the first time on The Great British Sewing Bee, it is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Week, with all the fabric in the haberdashery replaced with charity shop clothes and soft-furnishings. To breathe new life into this old fabric, host Joe Lycett kicks the six remaining home sewers off with a pattern for a pussy-bow blouse, which must be pieced together from four second-hand garments. This time, judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young are not only looking for precision sewing, but also the ability to design and create garments using attractive colour combinations.

In a twist to the usual transformation challenge, the sewers are faced with all the scraps and off-cuts collected throughout their journey on the Sewing Bee so far. Together, they collectively pool their leftover fabric to create stunning and inventive new patchwork garments.

Finally the sewers come armed with discarded curtains and soft furnishings from home, challenged to create a made to a measure day dress, perfectly fitted to their model. Julie Andrews hasn't got a patch on this bunch as they set to work on their brocade, net curtains and blinds, before one person is awarded Garment of the Week and the fifth sewer is asked to leave the Sewing Bee.

With Joe Lycett hosting, the quarter-finalists face British and Irish fabrics week. First up it is the pattern challenge, which this week is a stern test of their soft tailoring skills, as judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young ask the sewers to create a ‘worker's jacket' from linen. It is a garment full of complex techniques, using a fabric that can easily crease and fray, made all the more nerve-wracking as they must precisely follow Patrick's personal pattern.

Next it is the transformation challenge, and the sewers are asked to take inspiration from the British seaside by turning stripy deckchairs and parasols, covered in hard wearing Burnley ‘ticking' fabric, into stylish garments, in just 90 minutes.

For the final challenge, the models arrive in the Sewing Room to be fitted with made-to-measure coats, constructed from wool the sewers have sourced from across the British Isles. These are the largest garments they've attempted so far on the Sewing Bee, and the sewers must once again draw on tailoring prowess, to ensure their coats hang and fit perfectly. Whose wool coats will be the pride of Britain and who will unravel, missing out on a coveted place in the semi-final?

Joe Lycett hosts the semi-final, as the four remaining sewers go global, taking on garments and techniques from around the world. Firstly, the semi-finalists must follow a pattern like none they have encountered before, as judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young ask them to make a pair of Indian dhoti pants. Using a process based on the centuries-old tradition of folding and draping large rectangular pieces of fabric, these wide-legged, heavily pleated trousers prove a perplexing, visually striking, proposition.

Next up, it is the transformation challenge, as the sewers take on a garment from West Africa, the Dashiki. This colourful, strikingly patterned men's tunic must be transformed into a brand new outfit in just 90 minutes, making imaginative use of the Dashiki's distinctive, bold print.

For their final challenge, the made to measure, the sewers take on the fiendishly tricky high end Japanese couture technique of origami. Tasked with creating an origami top for their model, the sewers must sculpt dramatic, arresting garments, drawing on the ancient art of paper-folding. It proves to be a pain-staking process, pushing the sewers pattern drafting, fabric-handling and precision sewing to new heights. But only three of these four incredibly talented sewers can make it through to the grand final.

Hosted by Joe Lycett, The Great British Sewing Bee reaches its dramatic denouement as the three finalists compete for the title of Britain's best amateur sewer. They take on a trio of evening wear challenges. Bringing together a range of advanced sewing skills, from tailoring, to high-end designing and delicate handling of luxury fabrics, perfecting evening wear is a pinnacle for any home sewer. Judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young begin by asking the sewers to follow the most complex pattern yet – a double-breasted waistcoat. Even if they master the multitude of intricate processes, the sewers face the ultimate challenge of sewing blind, as the waistcoat must be stitched together inside-out, before one final, nail-biting reveal.

Next it is the sewers' final chance to show off their instinct for design in the transformation challenge, as they attempt to turn the domestic into the dramatic by repurposing net curtains into exquisite, red carpet-ready, pieces of evening wear.

Lastly, for the most important made-to-measure challenge of the competition, the sewers attempt to construct and fit glamorous strapless evening gowns for their models, this time hand-picked for friends and family. Creating a unique, jaw-dropping gown using yards of luxury fabric, suspended entirely from a fitted corset, will take a feat of daring construction and their most precise sewing yet. Once the final stitch is in place and the catwalk is over, the sewers' friends and family, along with past competitors, arrive to celebrate. But once the judges have made their decision, there can only be one winner.