Asmaa has been crowned the winner (Picture: BBC/Love Productions/James Stack)
The Great British Sewing Bee 2023 winner has been crowned, after a nail-biting final.
Judges Esme Young and Patrick Grant chose Asmaa to take home the coveted title, as the consultant breast surgeon from Cardiff emerged triumphant over the batch of 12 home sewers.
The 46-year-old said, after her win: ‘Thank you. I can’t really put into words how I am feeling.
‘This is not real, this can’t be me, it feels amazing.
‘Amongst everything I have done in the last 45 years of my life – this has to top it all – not the medical degree, not anything else, this is it!’
She added: ‘My grandmother was a seamstress who taught my mother, who then taught me. I think this confirms it is in the blood.
‘The only thing that has really kept me going and kept me balanced in life and especially in the last few years has been sewing – it’s my escape and my way to forget about all the troubles in the world and at work – and I don’t think I will ever ever stop.’
‘This is not real, this can’t be me, it feels amazing.’ (Picture: BBC/Love Productions,James Stack)
Ahead of becoming Britain’s Best Amateur Sewer of 2023, Asmaa won Garment of the Week in Episodes 7, 8 and 9, leading up to the final against Mia and Tony R.
Esme said: ‘Asmaa is a really talented sewer, very precise, very neat and in this last challenge she really pulled it off.’
Patrick added: ‘How you engineered that was out of this world – that final gown was spectacular. I am not sure I have seen anything quite so special on Sewing Bee. Spellbinding!’
Asmaa, who was born in Iraq and spent time learning from her grandmother who was a seamstress during the Iraq-Iran War, would use scraps and remnants to sew wardrobes for her dolls.
Aged 14, she escaped Iraq and moved to Durham before moving to Cardiff to study medicine, where she now lives with her husband and two children.
Mum-of-two Asmaa was up against Mia and Tony R in the final (Picture: BBC/Love Productions,James Stack)
Tonight’s Glamour Week saw a first challenge of a Victoriana-style evening dress, followed by the Transformation Challenge where they turned female party wear into a glamorous men’s red-carpet outfit, inspired by figures such as Billy Porter, Timothee Chalamet and Harry Styles.
Finally they fitted a Met Gala-worthy ‘two-in-one dress’ for their models who were a friend or family member, and created a dress which transformed from one dress into another whilst on the catwalk which took a feat of engineering and leap of imagination.
Asmaa said: ‘I went into the Final with a lot of nerves and I felt them through the pattern challenge and then my nerves peaked at the transformation challenge.
‘I stopped at one stage, took a deep breath and carried on. What kept me grounded in the final was having my friend Pritti there with me as a model.’
She added: ‘The atmosphere was more tense in the first day of the final, by the second day the nerves were still there but I think that was because it was our final challenge.
‘It was that sense of knowing it would be our last ever challenge ever together, and as we were nearing the end strangely it did become quite calm.’
The Great British Sewing Bee is available to watch on BBCiPlayer.
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