Today's Modern Hope chest

When your read about the hope-chests of yore, you have to ask yourself…is there any hope for the survival of the hopechest in the 21st century?
Let’s face it—you are probably NOT going to sew your own sheets by hand. (You wouldn’t even save money that way). And a lot of the items that June would have sewn (like oven mitts) wouldn’t necessarily look better hand-sewn—or be worth the time.
Does that mean that nothing can go into a hopechest that is not homemade? Absolutely not. If you have a wonderful candy dish passed down from your grandmother, or a luscious oriental vase you’ve been gifted with, you will certainly want to include them.
And it’s not only fine china or breakables that fit in the “manufactured” category—remember, woman on the prairie had some cookware in their hopechest.
So please don’t think I’m trying to limit you here. I just think that some modern things, like blenders, look silly in the hopechest.
Anything unusual, costly, or of sentimental value, is fair game.
After all, if you chose every conceivable item necessary for running today’s modern home, you’d need a hopeship, not a chest.
The prairie women of old had their husbands make their furniture, and had very few household items. So they did include everything.

Here’s a suggested list of handmade items you could sew for your hopechest:

Throw pillows
Shelf scarves
Table runners
Hand embroidered pillow cases
Fancy up your dollar store towels with trim (becomes a guest towel) or
Monogram your towels (when you know your pending last name :0
Shelf scarves
Dresser runners
Throw pillows
Slipcovers (fabric that covers mediocre furniture--or protects nice furniture)
Lace panels for daytime (placed behind your curtains)
Fancy pinafore/serving apron
In the days to come, I hope to post diagrams for sewing all of these.

June Cleaver's Hope Chest

..........i've been writing alot about June lately. What she wears, what she does, how much of a family woman she is...mostly, about how much she's loved.
So it only made sense, when I ran across an archived post "Sewing for the Home" to think of her. The more I read my list, the more it hits me...June would have been sewing all of these items long before she became a bride. I can see her now, lovingly stitching each line of the words on her "days of the week" dishtowels.
And thus, the title of this post.
Hey, while we are on the subject, do any of you (or your daughters) have hope chests? Please send some pics my way of ANY handiwork you created for your home.
I promise to post.
Love,
Sue
And now, the list

What June Cleaver would (probaby) sew for her hope chest:
After June sewed:
Curtains or headers for every window
and: throw rugs for every room
She would move onto the dining room items:
Chair pads and backs
Serving apron (fancy pinafore or hostess style)
3 sets of placemats and matching/coordinated napkins
2 tablecloths.
Table runner for serving food
Everyday aprons.
She would want her kitchen outfitted with the following:
homemade—potholders, ovenmitts/gloves, dishtowels and dishrags washcloths.
Because sewing was such an art, she might go so far as including:
Fitted bed sheets, pillow cases, homemade quilts/comforters.
Now, granted, in our culture, we probably would spend less money purchasing some of these items than sewing them, nor would we even want to take the time in crafting something so elementary as a dishcloth. Read on for "Today's Modern Hope Chest"

What makes a vintage apron a vintage apron

The other day, my friend and I were discussing vintage aprons. It happened as we were perusing a site about vintage clothing. I asked her, "How do you like vintage aprons?" I was startled by her response...
"Aren't all aprons vintage?"
I just looked at her. "What do you mean?"
"Come on" she said. "No one wears aprons anymore"
"Some people do."
"Sure, old ladies"
"You mean old fashioned people" I corrected her.
""Yea, whatever...old... old- fashioned..."
"No, I'm telling you," I told her "Some people really do wear them."
"No one our age does"
"Sure they do!"
"Well," she said in I told you so tones..."Do YOU wear an apron?"
"Why of course!" I answered.
She snorted.
"NO, really,it's true."
Her eyes shimmered and shined.
"Show me.." she sneered.
Unbelieving, she opened the designated drawer and squealed incredulously.
"No way!"
"Mmm...Hmmm..." I countered smugly. Panel after panel of half-aprons spilled onto the floor from the overstuffed drawer. She just couldn't believe it! (I didn't have the heart to tell her that I run an apron business;
that would have ruined my point).
"Actually," I teased her, " I can't believe that you don't wear them"

Now, to be fair, I have to admit, my friend was right; I know FOR A FACT that I am the only one in the neighborhood (seriously) who wears them. At least my age. Or that I know. Okay, maybe there are others, but I haven't met them. How about you? Do you have one? Do your friends? Let me know I'm not the only one.

Organizing Fabric, Chapter 1

When Organizing bolts of fabric, it's best to start with two divisions: prints, and solids.
Put all your print bolts on one shelf, and all of the solids on another shelf (or bookcase, depending on how much space you have and how big your "collection" is :).
Next, further divide these two categories, one by one, into the following categories:
Sub-Category 1:Type of fabric. Knits, wovens, napped, and specialty fabrics should all be grouped separtely.
Just stand them up, bookstyle, like they are on a library shelf. Put all your knits to the far left, then the wovens next to them, etc. Do the same with your solids.
2. Color of fabric. With the solids, this is easy. Just put all of the pinks, reds, and rose-colored fabrics together, from darkest to lightest. Go to the next color, say, brown, starting with deep mocha and ending with tan, whatever. Now, with your prints, this gets a bit more tricky. I suggest blurring your eyes (or taking off your glasses), and deciding what the overall color of the fabric is. Then, group accordingly.

How to Organize Fabric, Chapter 2

When you first buy those long yards of fabric, they can be used for almost anything. But as you cut into your supply, you find yourself laden down with scrap after scrap of fabric pieces in various shapes, sizes and colors.

How can you make any sense of it? Well, after years of trying to sort through, I have found the following ways to organize. Please note that each category listed is followed with suggestion for whom the style of organizing will work best for.

Organizing your fabric by each pending project – This category is useful if you only have enough of that fabric for for one specific project. It’s a good idea to store the fabric with the pattern, or a written description of what you intend to sew with it. Put both in a ziplock back.

You can also list the project on an index card, and file it.

By color—This method works well for freelance sewers, often pressed for a specific color to integrate into a garment. During the design process, freelance fabric artisans frequently reach for specific colored fabric swatches like painters reach for oil paints. When organizing your remnants by color, it’s a good idea to further catagorize them them into knit fabrics, and woven fabrics, these can be difficult to combine. (knits and wovens often "pull apart" when sewn together).

By type of fabric (it's weave)—Many crafters (especially quilters) find it helpful to separate their remnants into similar fiber types. That’s because quilts require that many scraps be “pieced” together, and should really be of a similar weight and weave to avoid stress on the numerous seams. If you like to make Calico quilts, or kaleidescope designs, you will find that sorting your fabrics by type is more of a priority than separating them by color (although some experienced quilters, who have an “eye” for which colors work well together, might also group these into color groups such as neutrals, pastels, or jewel tones.)

By size—This requires a little more practice—as you develop your skills, you will instinctively know which sizes of fabric work best for which projects. For example, when sewing placemats, you can easily use a dozen or so smaller pieces up efficiently, rather than breaking into a long fresh bolt of fabric.

When categorizing by size, I separate my fabric swatches into the following categories—Close to one yard long, 1-3 feet long, six inches to one foot, and patch sized pieces, about six inches. Anything smaller than these gets dumped in a rag bag for crafts.

By shape—this can get tricky. I use this when sorting deconstructed garments.

Triangles (from skirt panels)

Long strips (from hems and plackets)

Pockets---I use these for novelty accents on blankets, teen purses, etc.

Naturally, different scrap shapes occur as I cut different pattern pieces out of fabric.

As your skill develops, you will learn which categories work best for you.

Organizing your sewing basket

Okay. Let me be clear hear... this is not a description of the typical, picnic basket sized sewing container that holds every gadget you would ever need for every project. This little diddy is about sewing on the go... or, better put, sewing while you sit. You know what I mean. Your exhausted. The kids hands and feet are sticky. The house is trashed. And there's no way that you are going to do one more thing until you sit a spell. Unless that one more thing means a simple, "sew while you sit" project.

For quick handsewing, you will want to keep everything handy in an easy to reach place. I usually have five to six “hand” projects going at one time (to avoid boredom), and I keep them strategically placed at my “points of collapse” (i.e. the recliner, kitchen table and of course the sofa).

Here's what goes inside my mini sewing baskets.

Pre-threaded needle, (double threaded, knotted at the end), in the same color as my project. I keep several of these, ready to go in each basket. (Threading is such a headache in low light)

One small (very small) pincushion

The fabric to be sewn.

I also include a small new testament, that my teenager reads to me.

Then, when I’m “in the zone”, I simply reach over, grab my basket, and listen to her blissful voice.

Or, if we're both sewing, I read us a chapter and we meditate while stitching.

Happy sewing!

Double-Threaded Corkboard

Okay, I'll explain the screwy title to this post.
Long ago, I decided I was done with never having a threaded needle on hand (let alone not finding any thread anywhere). Needles could be found, but it was usually only after sweeping the floor meticulously, sitting on one, or pulling one from my heel (ouch!).
Well, enough is enough. For safety's sake, I started making sure that every needle had some thread in it, so that it could be found easily. At first, I started with simple white, but the more I thought about it, why not have all my colors prethreaded? So this, I began to do. And, wha la! Now whenever I need a specific color of thread, I don't have to worry about finding any needle, or the right colored thread. I just go to my hand corkboard, where I always have three prethreaded needles of every color on hand.

Here's how it's done: first, make sure that you have the right needle for the job. If you mostly quilt, you will want most of your needles to be shorter ones. It makes it easier to pull in and out on the short stitches neede.
Most of my hand sewing projects involve basting stitches. For this reason, I have mostly longer needles.
Now naturally, if I am working on a major project (like basting a table cloth), I might have an assortment of very long needles, all pre threaded in the correct color. And due to the size of my project, I would have as many as fifteen needles threaded at one time. Overkill? Perhaps. Unless you are tired of bending over every hour, scouting the floor, or retrieving needles from the sole of your flip flops.

You will need to double thread your needles, or at least tie a single not in the end. (See thread knotting).
For convenience, I try to group similar colors together, though it's not critical (unless you have every hue of the rainbow up there). I don't. I have a palette of 22 colors that I work from, excluding metallics.

I also keep prethreaded needles in my mini sewing baskets. It's a real drag to have to stop and thread a needle when I just want to relax and sew something.

Hope this helps.

Pins and needles defined

Sewing pins are simply metal pointed rods that pierce through two pieces of fabric to secure them during the sewing process. They are also used to fasten the pattern piece to the fabric, when the fabric is cut to size for your sewing project. (some sewers also use small weights to hold their fabric down)

Pins come in a wide variety of types and sizes. important thing to remember is to always buy ball-end pins for knits and delicates, and never to buy a needle that is so big that it leaves noticeable holes in your finished garment.

Sewing machine needles are just what they sound like—they are needles for your sewing machine. Your machine uses one needle at a time, unless you are doing specialty sewing. Sewing machine needles and hand needles are not interchangeable. That’s because the eye of a sewing machine needle is by the point of the needle, whereas the eye of the hand needle is toward the opposite end. Besides, you would never be able to pull a machine needle all the way through your fabric—the end is far to blunt.

Sewing machine needles come in a variety of sizes and type of needle. The most common kinds are ball point needles, and regular pointed end needles.

Hand sewing needles are simply the needles that you sew by hand with. They are threaded by inserting the end of your thread through the hole at the end of the needled (it’s called the “eye” of the needle).

Hand needles come in a variety of sizes, the size indicates how long the needle is and how wide the eye. If the needle is too thin for the fabric, it won’t go through easily, and could break. If the eye is too big, it will leave a hole in your fabric, that shows.