A spinoff of The Great British Bakeoff, with sewing instead of baking. It follows a similar format to its predecessor; an initial group of contestants are set three challenges each episode and one of them is eliminated by the judges (Patrick Grant
and May Martin, later replaced by Esme Young). The judges also pick a "garment of the week"; their favourite creation from that episode.
The first series (four episodes and a Christmas special) aired in 2013. The second series (eight episodes) aired in 2014. The third series (six episodes) aired in 2015. The fourth series (eight episodes) aired in 2016. All aired on BBC2, and were hosted by Claudia Winkleman. The show was rested for a couple of years following the fallout from Bake Off's move to Channel 4, but returned on BBC2 in March 2019, with new presenter Joe Lycett, then did a channel hop onto BBC1 in April 2020 (in part due to the dearth of new programming available due to the COVID-19 pandemic). A seventh series started on BBC1 in April 2021. Two celebrity specials then followed between Christmas and New Year 2021, with comedienne Sara Pascoe taking over presenting duties from Lycett, with an eighth series following in April 2022, with Pascoe continuing with hosting duties. A ninth series started in May 2023 on BBC1, with Pascoe on hosting duties again.
Stitched together from the following tropes:
- Bragging Rights Reward: Much like the "star baker" title from the Bakeoff, the contestant who made the "garment of the week" doesn't get anything tangible.
- British Brevity: Four hour long episodes (and a Christmas special) in the first series. The second series doubled them up to a more typical eight.
- Cosplay: How at least one contestant (Man Yee in Series 8) got into sewing, while one of the contestants in the first series sewed his own renaissance fair costumes.
- Friendly Rivalry: Like The Great British Bakeoff, the contestants get along with one another and compliment each other's work. The contestants of Series 2, in one challenge, even had to measure each other for trousers: an extremely intimate task that can only work when both parties involved are getting along.
- This was probably best shown in the first episode of Series 9, when, with 10 minutes of the five hours of the Showstopper challenge left to go, one contestant still had three quarters of her dress left to finish. Realising that she was never going to complete it in time, and that her model had nothing to wear, the contestants who had already finished, including one who was making a dress from the same pattern, all came along armed with pins and safety pins, and started to help her pin the material onto her model, so that she at least had something to show the judges.
- One Head Taller: Esme Young is barely 5ft, and as a result, not only do fellow judge Patrick Grant, and presenter Joe Lycett tower over her - so do almost all the contestants.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Patrick Grant is impeccably dressed in every episode.
- Textile Work Is Feminine: Downplayed in that Patrick Grant (who owns Norton & Sons on Saville Row) has been a judge in all seasons (although he isn't a trained tailor) and there were male contestants in all, however there is still much greater female to male ratio in the contestants.
- Patrick Grant explained, in one episode, that tailors were traditionally men because a lot of early tailoring equipment was extremely heavy. It took a lot of physical strength to do things like press clothing with irons that were literally heated hunks of metal with wooden handles.
- Unwanted Assistance: Presenter Joe Lycett's idea of helping contestants involves giving out wrong sized and mismatched buttons, and accidentally tearing one contestant's garment when trying to help them get it onto a mannequin.
