Esme Young

“Yes, I was about seven when I started sewing. We were taught at school, and the first thing I made was a gathered skirt.”

“If you're unhappy with what's in stores, you can think: 'I'll do it myself.' And you can put your own personality on what you wear.”

“I had a comfortable, middle-class upbringing and went to boarding school when I was five.”

“When I was 21, I left college and set up business Swanky Modes with three friends in Camden, North London. We were four women who did not know much about business, so we learnt as we went along.”

“If you read fashion magazines, and you couldn't afford something, or you were living outside London, you had to make it yourself.”

“I'll probably find it quite hard not to say what I think.”

“The first things I made were absolute pig's ears. I didn't understand about facings, or finishings, or anything.”

“Young designers will often look at things in a different way, and when I was first designing, that's exactly how I felt. People would say, 'That is wrong,' but 'That' was how I wanted it.”

“I love how the sewers express their vision. They all have their own personalities, and that's what they bring to the room.”

“'Sewing Bee' is making people realize that you can do it yourself.”

“Well, I've made elderflower cordial.”

“Even making clothes for Hollywood films, you do not get paid silly money. It is hard work and takes time.”

“My mother was a stay-at-home mum and my father was an RAF pilot.”

“Different types of knitwear stretch in different ways, and if it's hand-knitted then it can come undone.”

“What we're always looking for in students is who they are, and I think that's something that happens on the 'Sewing Bee.'”