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.