Meet the Sewing Bee's Patrick Grant 2025!
The Sewing Bee is back and it's better than ever. To catch up with the new series, head over to our Great British Sewing Bee guide, but if you want to learn more about the legendary Patrick Grant, then you've come to the right place.
We sat down with the one and only Patrick Grant to get all his thoughts and feelings about the latest series of the show. But first, discover more about Patrick's sewing background…
Who is Patrick Grant?
Patrick Grant has been with the Sewing Bee since it began in 2013. He was chosen to judge alongside May Martin and later Esme Young, thanks to his experience in designing men's fashion.
He was born in Edinburgh and studied at the University of Leeds and New College, Oxford. Before turning to fashion, Patrick was an aspiring rugby player whose rugby career was cut short by a shoulder injury.
He later moved to the US, where he worked in a surprising variety of jobs. His first job there was as a ski instructor, but he also worked as a nanny, camp counsellor, landscape gardener and model agent. He returned to the UK in 1995 to pursue a career in marketing.
In 2005, Patrick sold his house and car (as well as seeking loans from family and friends) to buy Norton & Sons, a struggling Saville Row bespoke tailor. He threw himself into restoring the 200-year-old business to its former glory and was able to turn its fortunes around.
Patrick went on to revive the E. Tautz brand in 2009 and acquired Cookson & Clegg in 2015, saving the 160-year-old business from closure.
He was awarded an Honorary Professor of Business from Glasgow Caledonian University in 2013 and was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in 2016.
How old is Patrick Grant?
He is 51. Patrick Grant was born on 1st May 1972.
How tall is Patrick Grant?
Patrick Grant is 1.9m (6"2).
What is Patrick Grant doing now?
Patrick is the owner of Norton & Sons and Cookson & Clegg, as well as the menswear label E. Tautz. He is the king of artisanal suits with an eye for detail and precision which he brings to all his judging.
But it's not just high end tailoring that's keeping Patrick busy, he set up Community Clothing to support ethical clothing manufacturing practices.
Patrick is also a supporter of HRH King Charles III's charity Future Textiles. The charity aims to educate young people and sustain Britain's traditional craft skills for the next generation.
All this and judging in our favourite TV show? How does he do it!
Now we've given you a bit of background on Patrick, have a read of our interview with him about the latest series of the Sewing Bee.
Meet The Great British Sewing Bee 2025's judge Patrick Grant!
Here's what the amazing Patrick Grant has to say about 2025's Sewing Bee series...
How would you sum up this year's series of Sewing Bee?
It was one of those where there were so many good people, it was impossible to call who was going to make the final or who was going to win. How do we gauge the technical competence of our sewers? With the pattern challenges.
And this year, they absolutely nailed them. I can't remember a series where they were done with such universal excellence. We were like: ‘Oh God, we haven't made these nearly hard enough…’
They don't sound particularly easy, though, Patrick…
Well, they weren’t, but the sewers were so good they made them look easy. The first challenge in the first week was as hard as anything we've ever done in a first week, and we got 11 that were almost perfect.
Week after week, we gave them difficult things and it wasn't until we got to week eight that we got more than maybe one person who struggled. We had to resort to fine-tooth comb nitpickery in order to separate them, looking at the accuracy and spacing of their top-stitching.
It’s extraordinary how the sewers get better and better, while the challenges get harder…
Some years, we have sewers who are maybe more creative and sometimes a bit less technically able. And sometimes, we have sewers who are less experienced, so they just haven't followed as many patterns. Some people have done hundreds over their lifetime. Others, relatively new to sewing, may have only done a couple of dozen. Sometimes, that shows.
They can be brilliant creatively, but maybe they’re not so good at following instructions. This year, we had all of the normal creativity, but also a layer of technical competence that was outstanding. Every week, we were sending home somebody capable of amazing things.
Do you ever think a transformation challenge might be too testing within such a short time frame? Most of us would need an hour just to think about it…
Transformation is an hour-and-a-half, and yeah, sometimes it's hard, but it's there to be a challenge. Ultimately, we're not worried so much about the finish or whether it fits brilliantly; we're looking for an idea. Has somebody got the imagination, knowledge and back catalogue of garments to create something innovative, good-looking and wearable? It's never enough time.
The transformation challenge is always quick… that is the challenge. On pattern challenges, we know we give people enough time because we test them rigorously. One of our team will develop the pattern and instructions, then somebody else in the team will test it, and it'll be tweaked.
Once we're happy, we send it out to a panel – usually two or three former Sewing Bee sewers – who time test it. We add time to allow for the interruption of cameras and questions and that's it. We know they're doable. The last three pattern challenges we did were hellishly difficult and our quarter-finalists, semi-finalists and finalists all did extremely well.
Have you and Esme taken longer to decide who’s made garment of the week and who’s going home?
Absolutely. From the beginning, we were having to send really good home people. It’s hard. You know they’d produce great things in the challenges to come and you think: ‘I'd like to see how they would’ve done that…’ But that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Often, it boils down to one bad sew. This year, it was mostly made-to-measures where people were maybe overthinking, being too complicated, aiming too high. It was great, though. We had a fantastic time filming as always. Sara was on super form and Esme was at her absolute best. It was a brilliant series, but then I say that every year… because it always is.
Tell us about the sewers…
The average age was considerably higher than it was the year before. We had one in their early 20s, a couple in their 30s, then we had 40s and quite a few 50s, 60s and 70s. And what do they do for a living?
We had an, a premises manager, head of communications, someone who ran a family printing business, a digital marketer, a retired office manager, a student, somebody who works in construction, a bus driver, a scientist, a magistrate, a fire breather and stilt walker, and somebody who lectures in product and industrial design.
All human life is in the sewing room…
It’s all covered. And we’ve the tallest competitor we've ever had. He was a good couple of inches taller than me and I'm just under six foot three. He runs the World Dad Dancing Championship in his spare time.
What were your favourite pattern challenges?
We did a Seven-Panel Cap in Active Wear Week – quite a tricky thing to make, but they managed really well and the fabrics they used… they were really cool. I really liked the Grayson Perry inspired challenge in Art Week, too.
We asked them to make an iconic Grayson inspired doll style dress and they did fantastically well.
Is Grayson a Sewing Bee fan?
Well, I know he's watched it because I've spoken to him about it and Philippa, his wife, certainly is a fan. Esme knows Grayson pretty well and I've met him a few times and love him.
He’s a fascinating guy – an extraordinary figure in the world of art and as a sort of social historian. It's always a pleasure to chat to him.
What were your favourite transformation challenges?
Movie Week was amazing. We gave everybody red velvet curtains, like the old cinemas used, and they had to make a dress for an after-party. Oh, it was so glam. Turning tents into festival wear was a really good one in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Week, too. There were very clever ideas.
We worked with an organisation called ReTribe in Sheffield on that challenge. They go to festivals, collect unwanted tents, recover the material and make things. There are 40,000 tents left behind at just one festival. This is what happens when you make things cheap and disposable… people will dispose of them.
They'll say: ‘Why would I bother to pack it up, ship it home, clean and dry it and repack it?’ They see it as part of the ticket price. It’s mad when you think that, in the past, people would keep a tent for their entire lifetime, then pass it on to somebody else.
What about your favourite made-to-measures?
I absolutely loved the costumes for a horror film in Movie Week. Some were so good they could easily have been characters in an actual horror movie. The When I Grow Up fancy dress in Kids Week was also brilliant as we got to see a side of the sewers we don't normally see. They had to make a costume for the job they thought they wanted to do when they were little. One wanted to be a politician and the costume they produced was so great.It made me laugh… a lot.
You've got some fabulous new themes including Korea Week…
That was great. Korea is somewhere I've been a few times and really like. A friend of mine called Eudon Choi – a very talented Korean womenswear designer – was our guest judge. He’s based in London, but from Seoul, and he was instantly great. So were the contestants. I always enjoy the research they do and the interesting things they unearth.
For the made-to-measure, they had to make an outfit inspired by a Cheollik, which originally was a garment worn by men under an official military coat and often used for horse-riding. They all did it in different ways. Everybody starts at the same point and their research and thinking leads them somewhere else. It was a lot of fun.
1920’s Week sounds a fabulous idea, too…
Well, we did a transformation challenge using polo shirts. René Lacoste developed what we now call a polo shirt – that classic sort of pique in the late 1920s. Originally, it was developed as a tennis shirt and it wasn't until the 1980s we started calling it a polo shirt.
Of course, there are millions of those in charity and secondhand shops around the world, so using those to make something new was a great challenge.
Were there a lot of flapper dresses in the made-to-measure – an outfit for a special event?
Yeah. They went really deep into this one. They were very specific about the historically important people they were creating outfits for and very specific about the event. I liked it a lot. There was a great deal of personal storytelling through the clothes they made this year that I really enjoyed.
Was the final a close run thing?
Yeah, it was very close. Even halfway through the final, it couldn’t really be much closer.
You had Sara back in the sewing room as host…
Yeah. She was on awesome form and brought Mouse the dog with her, which was great.
Did the three of you get some nights out this time?
We didn't, actually. I was so busy. Between filming, I was doing book talks. I did eight literary festivals.
What were the funniest moments behind-the-scenes?
Mostly stuff that isn't suitable for public consumption. LAUGHS They’ve been filming quite a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, though, for digital, so you will get some of that.
More singing in the green room, we imagine…
Yeah, the playlist is still at full volume, although Esme has switched her allegiance from Fruitellas to Cola Moams – that is now her drug of choice.
Are they on her rider?
No, she doesn’t know what she's going to get addicted to until it arrives. Somebody, fortunately, fed her a Moam and that was it: Cola and Cherry Maoams. I’ll just hoover up the flavours she doesn't like.
No, I try not to spend all day eating because you'd end up the size of a whale if you had everything on offer.
What are you up to outside Sewing Bee?
The book – Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish – continues to sell really well and it's throwing up loads of things. I've done a keynote speech for the UN Global Compact. I did a keynote speech at B Corp Festival and for the Design Council. The messages in the book are resonating very strongly with people. Community Clothing has been phenomenal this year.
We've attracted 10s of 1000s of new customers. The more people that find the brand, the more people that buy something and keep coming back. We’re making stuff that's going to last a lifetime and be worth wearing for decades to come.
And you’re using repurposed materials in some cases…
Yes. We’re developing something with ReTribe using repurposed tent material and we’ve started working with a paper mill in Cumbria. We've launched notebooks made from denim scrap. It makes really nice paper.
Other fabrics, we're going to start giving to mattress maker Harrison Spinks. They use recycled cotton from textiles in their mattress pads, so pretty much all our scraps will be used for something long-lasting and good quality. It's the way we think business should be done – with a care and consideration to people and the planet. Too many businesses only give a stuff about money and, generally, they're doing nothing but harm.
You're also turning into a latter day Tom Good with your garden in Yorkshire…
That's all been very fun. We watched The Good Life as a family growing up. I do a column about rebuilding the garden for the FT. I get to write about things like pigs, scything and ferrets.
I spent about 10 hours on Sunday building a fence to protect the newly planted orchard from the pigs. I made it out of bits of wood I found lying around the garden. I was splitting branches to make posts and some of the rails, then dismantling a load of old pallets the builders had left behind to repurpose all of that. I couldn't have had a nicer time.
Unlike Tom Good, you’re not giving up the day job, though?
No. I love running Community Clothing because we make things we're really proud of and we're doing business in a way we're really proud of. A lot of people depend on it now – almost 2,000 are employed across the 40-odd factories we work with in the UK. It shows you can do business a different way and be successful. I can’t imagine a time where I wouldn't want to be involved.
And, of course, I love filming Sewing Bee. As exhausting as it is trying to juggle it with the day job, it's a treat. Everybody that works on the show is great and the sewers are always great.
Pretty good. It's funny when you reach certain milestones and they give you pause to reflect. It’s interesting to see how far the conversation around clothes has changed over a decade. And the conversation around our own abilities to make and mend and reuse both the clothes and the textiles we have in our homes.
I’d be surprised if Sewing Bee hadn't had a fairly significant impact on people's awareness of the issues around the production and disposal of clothing. And, also, on their willingness to participate in doing things a better way.
In this series, for the first time, there were a significant number of sewers wearing clothes they'd made out of non-new materials. Also, on various made-to-measure challenges outside of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Week, they were voluntarily choosing to make clothes out of reclaimed or repurposed textiles. That is a fundamental change in thinking and we've had a lot to do with that.
What sewing machines are used on the Sewing Bee?
If you've been eyeing up the machines on the Bee and want to know which model or brand they're using, we've got you covered! Simply Sewing Magazine's senior technical editor has tracked down what sewing machines are used on the Sewing Bee so you can order your own.
Why Patrick Grant is a brilliant Sewing Bee judge
Patrick Grant is at the heart of the Sewing Bee – and he's been judging the show since it first launched in 2013! Patrick brings a lot of personality to the show and it's easy to see how much his feedback matters to the contestants.
As well as adding warmth and wit to the show, Patrick has years of experience in men's fashion, with a keen eye for tailoring and precision. He's the owner of Norton & Sons and Cookson & Clegg, but he also established Community Clothing to support ethical clothing manufacturing practices.
We can't wait to see Patrick back in the sewing room for the new series!
Get to know the Sewing Bee's Esme Young
It wouldn't be the Sewing Bee without our favourite duo: Patrick Grant and Esme Young! Esme's fashion career has spanned 50 years, so she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the sewing room. She's worked with a number of celebrities over the years, including Leonardo Di Caprio!
Get to know Esme Young with Gathered's fascinating interview.
