The Great British Sewing Bee finalist Pascha Al-Qassab is back at university where she is using her needlework skills to repair friends’ clothes and make last-minute dresses for nights out.
Miss Al-Qassab was just 20 when she began filming series 10 of the hit BBC One show in September 2023.
As she steamed seamlessly toward the final, she couldn’t tell her University of Bristol lecturers why she was missing class – or why she needed to spend so much time using the university’s sewing machines.
But her rapidly improving sewing skills soon found favour among students.
“I get lots of requests for repairs from friends, and I’ve had students come and say, ‘I’ve split my shorts in the gym, can you help?,” she said.
“I’ve also been known to try and whip up something quickly before a night out. It’s quite good fun speed sewing at the kitchen table.”
Despite being one of the youngest to ever grace the show, she impressed judges with her versatile outfits.
“When I arrived on the set I was too excited to be nervous. I was bouncing off the walls with excitement and my adrenaline was sky-high!” said the now 21-year-old.
“I’m a big fan of the show and I couldn’t believe I was in the sewing room itself. If you sew or you’re a creative person it’s like Disneyland.”
Miss Al-Qassab, from Surrey, made it her goal to get past week one and says she feels “so lucky” to get to the final.
The show was her inspiration to start sewing. But she really got the bug when she found a dress that she felt she couldn’t buy because it was being sold by a company whose values she didn’t agree with.
Miss Al-Qassab ordered the dress, copied the pattern, and sent the original back. She still wears her own version of the dress.
She applied twice for Sewing Bee, before making the cut on her third application.
Now, a year since filming began, the student is getting used to being asked for selfies.
“It’s always in really mundane places like Tesco or B&Q where people recognise me – it’s never in fabric shops,” she said.
“It’s really lovely because people are always fans of the show and interested to hear about it.”
Miss Al-Qassab is now back in Bristol for the final year of her psychology and innovation master’s, a course she says she “loves”.
She may well have been the best-qualified student in her recent group project, which looked at ways to innovate sustainable fashion by mending clothes.
And her advice to others thinking of applying to The Great British Sewing Bee?
“It doesn’t cost you anything to give something a go, and sometimes it might work out and be something amazing, which is really was for me,” she added.
