I want a Hope Chest

I want a Hope Chest. I have wanted one since the first time I heard of such a concept... Also like the idea of a trip to Paris to shop for a trousseau, but I think a Hope Chest is more do-able at the moment.

I need to remember to get the book The Hope Chest: A Legacy of Love by Rebekah Wilson at some point.

The reason why I thought about this just now is that I've been trying to catch up on my machine sewing this weekend...

I'm working on my summer shrug and find that the pattern wasn't very clear on a few points so I have to rip some seams and make a few alterations here and there. However, I'm fairly certain that it will still work... I just have to mess with it. Lucky for me, I have several large fabric scraps I can use.

Then, I was trying to make this nifty beach cover-up of my own design and it doesn't seem to be working... ::sighs:: Back to the drawing board there.

As for the sarong, I just need to get thread in the appropriate color and hem the edges. How simple is that? (And stores charge upwards of $30 for sarongs?! People, people, go to a fabric store, find a fun summer print you like, buy a couple of yards and hem it yourself! At most, you're out $15.) But since I don't have the thread right now at 3 am, I can't get it done this evening.

The fourth project was one that came to me when my friend Maria brought over an odd yard of yellow and white plaid fabric she had gotten on clearance to ask if I thought it was good for a project she wanted to do. I thought it was too light for the project she was thinking of, but that the fabric would be perfect for cloth napkins, so she said I could have it for that. WooHoo! So I washed it and dried it, and it's been sitting here for about a month and a half. Tonight, I finally cut it up into napkin sized squares and began hemming. I have enough for nine. Since my mom doesn't use fabric napkins, being of the Baby Boom generation who by and large prefers store bought and/or disposable things, I thought as I was sewing, what on earth am I going to do with these things while still living here?

My Hope Chest... They will be my very first official addition to it, all these years later... I already have been promised a good deal of my grandmother's china and silver, as well as her shabbat and havdalah sets and her baby naming dress, which I also wore when I was six months old, but I do not have any of these items in my possession. (My aunt has the vast majority of the collection, and I do not expect to get any of it until I am married to a nice, family-approved Jewish boy. Considering past actions toward other family members, she isn't likely to give them up if I am not.)

Handmade donations to my Hope Chest, as well as ideas for stuff I could make will be most welcome and appreciated. If I may make a superstitious request to those of you who are likely to make things as a surprise or gift, at the moment, I'd prefer items intended for general household use (towels, bedding, kitchen items, etc.), rather than those intended for specific occasions (such as baby or wedding items). Superstitious to the core, I am.

::sighs:: Now, I just have to find something in which to store everything.