Planning Cards for Shopping

Trying to be as frugal as possible, I took the scraps of material that I had, and the smaller yardage, and measured out what I could get from them to make sleeves, or a bodice, or a border, etc. to make my dresses. Then I took a swatch from each of them, and the color blocks on the selvage edge, and pasted them on an index card. A note on each card told me how much I had, how much I would need, and some design options.



I need at least 3.5 yards for a dress, preferably more. If I could not find anything to coordinate with my scraps in my stash, I could take these little cards shopping with me to find just what I needed. And that is what I did in some cases: I was able to take this yardage (above), which was enough for a skirt and sleeves, and find some coordinating material on the bargain table at the store. All I needed was a yard to complete a dress.

I had a yard of this calico, and I found a perfect color match at the store, only needing 2 & 1/2 yards to complete a dress.