Megan Hilbish’s early fascination with sewing has paid off. Next month, she will represent Kansas in the junior class of the national “Make It With Wool” competition in San Diego, Calif.
Megan, the daughter of Bev and John Hilbish, was 5 years old when she started learning how to run a sewing machine. It wasn’t long before the girl was winning ribbons at the Lyon County Free Fair.
“I did open (class) before I was old enough for 4-H,” Megan said. “My mom taught me how to sew.”
The national contest is the next logical step for the 13-year-old, who already has won prizes for her sewing skills at county, regional, and state levels.
She’s grown accustomed to modeling her outfits, having the garments’ construction inspected by judges, talking to them about details of the projects from start to finish, and answering questions about the costs involved, and other queries. One of the criteria for judging is how the garments fit into the wardrobe of a young teenager. That aspect of the competition has become simpler because wool is more user-friendly than it was in the past.
“American sheep industry is trying to take away the stigma of the old, scratchy wool,” Bev Hilbish said. Today’s wool fabrics are soft, comfortable, and don’t wrinkle.
At the state wool contest, judges took Megan aside to prepare her for the intricacies of competing in the national event. They made recommendations about tweaking her accessories to give the outfit a little more pizzazz, and gave her other tips that could make the difference in finishing first and finishing third.
Megan’s fully lined outfit includes lined wool flannel short pants based in tan with a brown plaid woven in. She tops it with two tank tops – one brown, one orange to make the outfit “pop out,” she said– and a lined cream-colored, three-quarter length gabardine jacket. She accessorizes the outfit with orange and brown jewelry, brown shoes and a brown beret.
It is difficult to find a good selection of wool in Emporia, she said, so they’d gone online to order the fabric for her Lyon County Fair entry this year. Without the luxury of feeling the fabric, she found that the wool she’d purchased was heavier than she hoped; even with interfacing, the buttonholes looked like they hadn’t been reinforced. Still, the sewing skills she’d shown on the project made it good enough to qualify for the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson.
Megan is a bit of a perfectionist, though, so she started over on her entry for the wool contest, using fabric that was more suited for the result she wanted.
The garments easily passed the judges’ scrutiny at the regional and state contests, and Megan’s poise in modeling and her confident answers propelled her to the top of the class.
For a time, though, she got a bit of a fright at the state contest in Wichita. She’d finished most of the competition and had gone back to the staging area to change into her wool outfit.
“We came back for the review and I couldn’t find my outfit in the room,” Megan said.
She eventually located the woman in charge, who told Megan that she and another contestant would need to go back in front of the judges before the review with all of the contestants.
“They told us I was the winner and she was the alternate,” Megan said.
Raegan Root of Emporia was the state pre-teen winner, though because of her age, she will not be able to compete in San Diego.
Now, Megan is biding her time until she heads to California. And she’s found plenty to do.
Megan, a seventh-grader, is an “A” student at Emporia Middle School, where she takes enrichment classes like high-school algebra and plays wing and point guard on the A team for girls’ basketball that beat the undefeated Seaman team for the league title. She’s preparing to take the ACT test in February. She enjoys helping her parents lay ceramic tile and paint houses.
She also is enrolled in a variety of 4-H projects that reflect her interests, such as shooting sports – both with BB guns and bows. She has won top prizes for her skills at state and national contests.
“She’s determined, and when she sets her mind to do it, she’s going to do it,” Bev Hilbish remarked about her daughter’s perseverance.
Megan is optimistic that her project will show well against the other entries from across the nation. Two Kansas entries have won the national title in the recent past, and Megan is eager to begin this year’s competition, scheduled from Jan. 21 through 25.
“You have to dress up every day, so I had to go shopping,” Megan said.
At stake are the possibilities of scholarships, features in fashion magazines, and monetary prizes.
Her mother and her grandmother, Dorothy DeWeese, will accompany Megan on the trip, though they will not be able to spend time with her while the contest is going on. Instead, Megan will stay in a dorm setting with other contestants and the women will go sightseeing.
“You don’t have contact them,” Bev Hilbish said. “You can’t assist them in any way. They have to be responsible for themselves.”
And that’s just something else that Megan Hilbish will have no problem doing.
create (anonymous) says...
Great story! Good luck to Megan in national competition, but it sounds like she already has all the requirements for a win. It's nice to see a national representative come from Emporia. This says something about the positive value 4-H brings to young people. Good parenting + 4H sounds like a good formula to me.
December 28, 2008 at 7:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hjcary (anonymous) says...
Great Job Megan, My husband and I know your grandma, mom, dad and Uncle James but we moved away 13yrs ago so did not get to see you grow up. Keep up the hard work.
December 29, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )