I was on The Great British Sewing Bee and was left shellshocked when it wrapped – there’s A LOT you don’t see on screen
ANNIE Rolo Phillips has dished all on her winning stint on The Great British Sewing Bee including opening up on the long filming days and the secrets you don’t see on camera.
The star rose to fame on the popular BBC contest and has now lifted the lid on exactly what goes on behind the scenes.
The programme is currently hosted by Sara Pascoe and has previously been fronted by Claudia Winkleman and Joe Lycett.
Each of the competitors are tasked with coming up with the best sewing designs possible in order to impress the eagle-eyed judges – Patrick Grant and Esme Young – and advance further in the contest.
However, winner Annie, who was pregnant during her time filming the show, has revealed that it is not all light airy fun and even admitted she was left “shellshocked” by the end of the process.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, she spilled how she was “sucked into” the crazy sewing world during the long filming days.
Annie said: “Obviously for me, I was pregnant at the time, but you just [get] sucked into this world, so it kind of flies by, really?
“When it ended, I was shellshocked for a couple of weeks. It was quite intense.”
Annie admitted that she had three months notice to prepare for being on the popular BBC programme and discussing potential ideas and designs with the show’s crew and production time.
Despite this, she admitted that being unsure how long she would last on the show, affected how much she couple prepare in advance.
She added to the publication: “It was a case of the first few weeks planning exactly what you’re gonna do for made to measure and obviously running it past [production].
“Obviously trying to find fabrics and things that you want to use was quite hard actually, because I think during the process you develop so much that to do it, almost plan it before it. It was kind of hard.”
Annie filmed her series during the Covid pandemic and added to the website that she had to make a “bubble” with her co-stars and limited members of the production.
As such, she confessed there were no wild night’s out or group drinks as a result of restrictions.
The bubble allowed the contestants to form a close bond with Annie adding: “We really helped each other. I mean, it was a competition but I think we all were there for emotional support!”
She continued: “On the last day we essentially came out of the bubble when our parents and partners came up at the end, we could then not be in a bubble so, that was nice.
“We had a bit of a party and could just relax with everyone. Before that, we had to have separate toilets, separate everything!
“Coming out the bubbles was really nice.”
The Great British Sewing Bee is available on BBC iPlayer.