Introducing Hepsibah

Many years ago, somewhere around the time I was born, my grandmother, who was a very talented artist and seamstress, made a 4 foot tall Easter Bunny.  True to her quirky style and sense of humor, she named this bunny Hepsibah.

I loved Hepsibah.  She was around for my christening (at 6 months old, in my grandmother's house, with my mother), and every Easter for many years.  At some point, Hepsibah stopped coming out for Easter; I really don't know what happened to her, but I'm certain she's in a landfill somewhere.

So, I've been thinking about getting a mannequin to help me with figuring out what fabrics want to be, and to make taking pictures of finished objects easier.  When you only have yourself, getting a good picture becomes torturous.  Plus, it's 65 degrees and cloudy here, and, being September, the weather is only going to get worse.  Those are the rules: in December, it's darn cold, and in January, venture outside without 6 layers of clothes at your own peril.  And my autofocus is having issues figuring out what's me and what's the background when I take indoor pictures, so I have many blurry photos.

Anyway, the new Hepsibah is here to try and help me; she's very close to my size.  But if the original Hepsibah were still around, you know I'd be trying to figure out how to fit dresses over that upraised arm, because those pictures would be awesome!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

The July Sewciety Box and Matching skirts....

My July Sewciety box contained a skirt pattern from the independent designer Twig and Tale called the Meadow Skirt.  It has a couple of different options: gathered all around or pleated in the front, longer or shorter, waist tie or not. A button front was an option, as were pockets (which I never like) and even a maternity panel.  Clearly, the designer tried to add options to make everyone happy. 

I received a bright and cheerful floral, and opted for the pleated front option, since I'm not a huge fan of the gathered waistline: I don't need to emphasize the ol' gutsy any more than it already is.  In the end, I had 30" of fabric left over, which was just enough to make matching grandma/granddaughter skirts for 2 of my 3 girls!  But, let's face it, the baby is too small to wear a skirt anyway.  People who can't sit up because they're 4 months old should just stick to onesies, right?

The Meadow Skirt is a little different than most skirts out there.  It has a high waist with a waistband.  The directions call for the pleats to be pressed in, then just stitched across the top and end of story.  I decided it would be better to stitch them down for 6", so they have a chance of still looking like pleats after the first washing.  Plus, they wouldn't stick out at the waistband, which would be a plus to me (see comment above about the gut).  The skirts for the girls were simple "paper bag" elastic waisted skirts, which goes something like this: cut a piece of fabric twice the waistline by whatever length you want plus 2", run a single seam up, turn up a 1/2" hem, turn under 1" to 2" for the elastic casing and seam top and bottom for said casing, add elastic, iron, done.  So, these are the 3 together, laid flat on my table.

Nora was here last weekend, and we need to match THAT DAY.  Of course, she likes to clown around for pictures.  And if you look at the reflection in the second picture, you can see the back of my skirt.

Maddie was here this weekend, so we matched yesterday.  Thatcher felt that he needed to be part of the "fashion show" with Grandma.

Maddie refused to take her skirt off for bed last night (although she did wear her PJ top), and put on a clean top but wore her skirt home today.  So it looks like she really loves her new Grandma skirt.

What I liked about the pattern: Good directions, including links in the PDF for videos showing each step as it's done (the back waistband was a little fussy, with a double casing, so that confused me for a minute).  Nice flexible design.  Wide range of sizes.  What I didn't like at all: This was a PDF download pattern, so the pages had to be taped together for use.  This one was not very well done, so every single page had to have all 4 sides trimmed.  Doesn't seem like a big deal, except that many independent pattern companies have theirs print so they can just be overlaid without trimming.  When you have to spend time assembling your pattern, the lack of trimming is a big deal.

Overall, Sewciety did a good job with this box: pretty pattern, really nice fabric, and, as usual, the fact that they include everything you need for the project right down to a spool of thread is fantastic.

Happy Monday, everyone!  I hope you've had a great Labor Day weekend!