Great British Sewing Bee Series 12, 2026 Round-Up

Team FG Boss, Paul, was thrilled to see that 3 of this year’s contestants hail from Yorkshire, not that he's biased, of course.

Image Credit: Love Productions

1. Sam, 31, West Yorkshire, heating engineer (week 2)
2. Heather, 28, West Midlands, project manager (week 9)
3. Beth, 24, Oxfordshire, engineering PhD student (Finalist)
4. Emma, 45, Midlothian, classical soprano (Finalist)
5. Tim, 60, Suffolk, care farm director (week 5)
6. Lewis, 29, East Sussex, primary school teacher (week 4)
7. Rebecca, 27, London, chartered actuary (week 8)
8. Minnie, 30, Bedfordshire, full-time mum (week 6)
9. Adele, 36, West Yorkshire, primary school teacher (week 7)
10. Angie, 63, Warwickshire, retired business studies and computing lecturer (week 3)
11. Anna, 27, North Yorkshire, barista & waitress (Finalist)
12. Dawn, 64, London, chief financial officer (week 1)

Everyone agreed it was such a high standard of sewing this year and no-one was overly surprised to see Anna, Beth and  Emma in the final. Read to the end to find out who won!

Great British Sewing Bee Series 12 Finalists: Emma, Beth and Anna

• This theme seemed just right for this year's blistering hot summer weather and the Pattern challenge saw the eager new contestants crafting summer shorts with a patch pocket. We loved the fun prints they used including fruity fabrics and our favourite, a lobster print. 

• In The Transformation Challenge, barbecue aprons were turned into bags.

• The Made-to-Measure challenge asked the sewers to create an outfit for their ideal summer’s day to model on the catwalk themselves. 

Emma won garment of the week for her custom summer outfit, a swimming twin-set. 

Fabrics Galore's social media gang were delighted by the superb sewing skills of all the contestants and were quick to praise their own favourite banana print fabric!

   

Get the look with our Banana Splits Cotton and Lawrence the Lobster Jersey

• The pattern challenge was to make an adaptive shell top including tricky invisible side zips and a high-low hem.

• The transformation challenge was to make use of purple and brown clothing, the judges’ least favourite colours!

• In the made to measure the sewers’ challenge was an outfit using different fabrics and textures but using only a single colour.

• The pattern challenge was to make three pairs of knickers out of second-hand T-shirts. This was the first time in the Sewing Bee that the pattern challenge required making copies of the same item, challenging their consistency across the same make.

• The transformation challenge was to make a garment with "drama at the back" using textile remnants and other materials destined to go to landfill, which were chosen by Patrick and Esme.

• The made-to-measure challenge was to make outfits with an environmental message.

Team FG loved the knicker challenge (and thought it was ideal for our mini stripe jerseys), but it was in the made-to-measure that the contestants really got to experiment. 

The stunning garment of the week, the Balsam Flower Dress made by Anna using Indian calico stamped with balsam flowers, was described by an unusually emotional Patrick as "extraordinarily beautiful and incredibly well thought-through" and that "it was one of the best things we've ever seen in the Sewing Bee”.  Proof if ever we needed it that sewing really can reduce you to tears.

We were so excited in the run up to Mexico week, as Team FG love the vibrancy of Mexican textiles and need no excuse to shout about our fabulous Frida Kahlo fabrics which celebrate Mexicos’ most famous female icon. 

The judges were joined by Mexican fashion entrepreneur, Erika Alvarez. 

• The pattern challenge was to make a blouse using Oaxacan fabrics decorated with various ribbons and trims made by indigenous communities.

• The transformation challenge was to make a sculptural garment from two 'manteles de hule’ (traditional Mexican oilskin tablecloths).

• The made-to-measure challenge was to make an outfit for any one of the many Mexican festivals which take place throughout the year. 

 

Heather won the garment of the week with her fantastic Fiesta Grande de Enero Outfit. If you loved Mexico week, we should let you know that we are on our last remaining stock of Alexander Henry fabrics as the design house closed last year. Snap them up while you still can.

Get the Mexican look with our Frida Kahlo fabrics

We are not normally big fans of Sports Week at FG, but who didn’t love the amazing appliqué? And the Bees had to work in teams for the transformation challenge, yet another inspired GBSB first.

• The pattern challenge took contestants to the beach to create men’s swimming shorts (luckily, no budgie smugglers!)

• For the transformation challenge, the sewers were split into pairs to make outfits from recycled windsurf sails.  

• For the made-to-measure challenge, the sewers made embellished bowling shirts, using both appliqué and free-motion embroidery.

Th judges were “bowled” over by Anna’s food themed bowling shirt as were we. Remember your fabric scraps and remnants are ideal for this kind of work if you want to try something similar at home. 

There was real variety in the Children’s Week challenges, and our sewing community shared their experiences with making AND wearing tutus including the fascinating fun fact about the Royal ballet storing all their tutus on a tutu tree! We looked it up and it is a circular base on wheels with a central pole which the tutus are layered onto to keep them flat without crushing the tutu skirts. And @sew.ange has the unenviable task of following the Royal Ballet instruction book for sewing tutus for her 2 granddaughters’ ballet festivals this year. 

• The pattern challenge asked the sewers to make a girl's tutu.

• For the transformation challenge, the sewers had to call on their sewing genius to turn children’s fleeces into child-friendly stuffed toy animals.

• The made-to-measure challenge required sewers to come up with their own superhero costumes suitable for the nine-year-old models to wear. 

Rebecca’s “Troublemaker” won garment of the week, and everyone was sad to say goodbye to Minnie. The transformation challenge reminded us of a fantastic project to make dinosaur tails from fleece fabric.

Read our sewing community's tutu stories on Instagram!

In week 7 the musically inspired challenges were designed to test the Bees for a place in the quarter finals.  We thought they were all groovy and asked our community which look they would have chosen.  The New Romantics’ frilly shirts were a popular choice.

• In the Pattern Challenge, the Bees were asked to channel Madonna and make the cone bra inspired by the famous Jean Paul Gaultier creation Madonna wore in the 1990s. 

• In the Transformation Challenge, the sewers were once again asked to work in teams and take bedroom furnishings to create the outfits for two distinct pop acts. 

• The Made-to-Measure challenge saw contestants making outfits inspired by the decadent era of 1970s’ disco music. Anna’s silver dance outfit won garment of the week, and we said goodbye to Adele.

 

Tell Us on Our Fabrics Galore London Instagram page!

• In the Pattern Challenge, it was the trickiest of tasks as the Bees were required to make the iconic deerstalker hat worn by Sherlock Holmes.  It proved far from elementary, but Beth’s hat was judged to be the best.

• The Transformation Challenge provided more fun as the Bees set about turning old school uniforms into an outfit that they could see Matilda wearing as a grown-up. Anna’s tartan tearaway was the judge’s favourite (and Team FG’s too).  

• Finally, in the Made-to-Measure, The Bees were asked to create outfits worn during the Regency period and inspired by the works of Jane Austen.  Beth’s portrait dress for Elizabeth Darcy won garment of the week, although they were all pretty spectacular in our opinion.

Our sewing community loved all the outfits in the Made to Measure and debated at length about which they felt to be the best and which they would wear themselves, but many agreed with the judges’ that Beth’s portrait dress was simply stunning.  Rebecca did so well to last until week 8 but said goodbye as the remaining 5 headed to the semi-final. 

For the semi-final, the challenges have stepped up a notch, and this week celebrated wardrobe heroes - (not the fleeces that we were thinking of), but pleather jackets, wedding outfits and a classic LBD (Little Black Dress). 

•  In the Pattern Challenge, the semi-finalists used plant-based leather or pleather to make a classic leather jacket. 

• In the Transformation Challenge, the Bees took men’s shirts and turned them into wedding outfits. 

• Lastly, in the Made-to-Measure, the sewers showed off their skills for the penultimate time with their own take on the Little Black Dress or LBD.

Beth took garment of the week with her LBD inspired outfit and although she had impressed throughout series 12, Heather was the last to be eliminated before the BIG FINAL. 

Tell us on our socials

• In the Transformation Challenge the Bees took gala tableware and made outfits for a post Gala Day at The Beach Club (hangover optional!).