A MEDICAL student from Glasgow has become the first Scot and the youngest contestant to win The Great British Sewing Bee.
The success of Serena Baker, 22, in the BBC1 show follows that of Jackson Moyles, 21, from Dunfermline, who was named joint winner of BBC4’s Great British Photography Challenge on Monday.
The double victory caps a year in which young Scots also won Mastermind and The Great British Bake Off.
The national football team may be having trouble finding their target at Euro 2020, but there is no such hesitancy when it comes to the country’s students and reality television contests.
Ms Baker, who attends Edinburgh University, was one of an original starting line of 12. The tasks she completed ranged from making shorts, a unisex children’s raincoat, and a disco dress, as well as transforming old clothes into new garments.
Judges Esme Young and Patrick Grant agreed that the overall standard in this year’s competition was exceptionally high, but Ms Baker was outstanding in one crucial area.
Young, who teaches at Central St Martins in London and whose design work includes costumes for Trainspotting and Bridget Jones’s Diary, told the winning Scot: “I have this thing about really talented sewers. They have fairy dust that they throw over the garment and it doesn’t look like it has been touched by a human hand. That’s what your sewing is like.”
The series was filmed under Covid rules, with parents and partners only able to be at the final via Zoom. Friends acted as models for the final garments – red carpet dresses.
Ms Baker, now in her fourth year at Edinburgh, took up sewing when she was 15. She learned the techniques from YouTube tutorials and her mother showed her how to work from patterns. Villanelle, the couture-clad assassin from the TV drama Killing Eve, is among her chief inspirations, with her final garment inspired by the Molly Goddard creation worn by Jodie Comer on the hit show.
After the series began airing Ms Baker was recognised a few times at university. She had to keep the details of the shows secret, and store her trophy where it would not be seen.
“It has been hidden in a box on top of the wardrobe, but now it will be in pride of place.”
She has two more years at university, then two foundation years training as a junior doctor.
Jackson Moyles was one of six amateur photographers who took part in the Great British Photography Challenge. Over four weeks the six studied with Rankin, the Paisley-born photographer, filmmaker and co-founder of Dazed and Confused magazine.
Mr Moyles, a self-taught landscape photographer, is a part-time student and works in a care home. His co-winner, Tyrone Williams, is 28 and a graphic designer from Northampton.
Among the tasks the six faced was a celebrity fashion shoot. The final was filmed in Scotland and included taking photos of two local bands, Walt Disco and The Ninth Wave, and a shoot in Glencoe.
Rankin, whose subjects have included David Bowie, the Queen and Madonna, said it had been impossible to choose one winner.
“Tyrone and Jackson are completely different photographers, with two very different styles and career paths. Tyrone is an art photographer with a really clear voice. His work grabbed my attention from the beginning. Jackson’s work grew as he found himself over the competition. There was no way we could split them – they were both clear winners in their own right.”
The shots of both winners, as well a set of new images which draw on their experiences from the series, can be seen in a digital winners exhibition at Public Offerings Ltd, a platform founded by art curator, and Great British Photography Challenge mentor, Ellen Stone.
Edinburgh student Peter Sawkins won The Great British Bake Off last November at the age of 20, while Jonathan Gibson, a 24-year-old Glaswegian studying for a PhD in Modern History at St Andrews, became the youngest Mastermind champion in April.
Great British Photography Challenge exhibitions available at www.public-offerings.com/GBPC
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