Use What You Have Party Planning

I finished these little memo pads last night. They will go into the girl's Mother-Daughter Luncheon goodie bags. I am now working on some little needle books, also from 1930s reproduction prints in fabric and paper. Everything is turning out really cute. And so far I haven't spent a dime. It's not that I'm trying to be cheap, but I want to put my party budget into the food as much as possible. That's why I chose a 1930s/40s theme. I have lots of fabrics, papers, table linens, fiestaware from those time periods that I can use as a headstart.

I'm getting excited about the party. It started out as simply a utilitarian get-together to sew skirts as a community service exercise for the girls. But then I decided to try to make it a special bonding time for them and their mothers as well. And the ideas just started to flow. It was meant to be. :) :) I'll share pics of the needle books when I get them done. I don't have any felt on hand and need to run to JoAnn's for a couple of squares. I want to stop by the Dollar Store as well. I'd like to slip in a little sewing kit or seam ripper into their bags. After I get the goodie bags taken care of, I'll turn my attention to the table linens and serving pieces. I have some of those tiered serving racks, but they're in mismatched metals. I think I'll spray-painted them bright red. They were just garage sale finds so it's not like I have a lot of money into them. Then I want to wire a rag bow from the 1930s fabric onto the handle and slip in some faux cherry sprigs. All still stuff in my craft stash.

Sometimes having a big fabric and craft stash pays off.! Here are the memo pads. I didn't do a tutorial on them because I figured they were probably pretty self explanatory. I made the little covers from manilla file folders first so that they were more durable than simply a paper slip, cutting a whole stack of them at once with my rotary cutter, ruler and mat.