Now that I’ve shown you a little about one of my current sewing projects, the bronze matte jersey dress with pewter jersey lining, I want to put this project in context. I’m planning a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, around the end of August, and decided this was a great excuse (if I actually need one) to make some new clothes. And since I have also been working on some ideas for great travel wardrobes, this is the perfect time to try out my theories!

The first thing I want to do for a new mini-wardrobe (it’s a 4-day trip) is create a color palette. It so happens that I’ve been twice already to Santa Fe, and it is one of my very favorite places, in part because of the beautiful colors there, which are all the more brilliant in the clear golden light of the high desert. I fell in love with everything from the innumerable shades of green and the earthy, natural colors of architecture and basket-weaving to the silver and turquoise of the jewelry you see everywhere in the Southwest. So the inspiration for my Santa Fe color palette was obvious. I headed over to Colourlovers.

If you haven’t seen the Colourlovers website, you’re in for a color-filled treat! This is one of my favorite places for creating my color palettes (you can check out mine here), and you can also play with fun things like making repeating patterns with palettes; I’ve created my own pattern templates, colored them with my palettes, and had some custom-printed on fabrics from Spoonflower! Colourlovers is a fantastic place just to browse for color inspiration.

Here’s my Santa Fe Wardrobe palette:

Colourlovers palettes have a maximum of 5 colors, but my palette is going to have 2 more: pewter and a deep olive green. And the proportions of the colors in my palette give some idea of how they will be used in my actual wardrobe: the light sage-y green is going into a pair of wide-legged linen trousers, the blue-green and chartreuse will be a sleeveless silk top, the bronze and pewter will be the jersey dress, and the deep olive will be an interestingly-wrapped silk twill skirt. I also have a gorgeous silk printed in turquoise, deep plum, and sage that will be a loose, flowy one-shouldered tunic that can double as swimsuit cover-up. Turquoise will show up mainly in accessories, along with pewter and bronze.

So here’s a recap of the clothes I’m making for this wardrobe: 1 jersey dress, 1 silk skirt, 1 silk top, 1 silk print tunic/cover-up, 1 linen trouser. I will most likely add 1 or 2 more tops, a swimsuit (dark brown with turquoise “jewel” detail), and a sweater (of my own making) in turquoise, teal, and an indescribable pale chartreuse. Possibly a pair of jeans (if I can find some). And don’t get me started on the shoes…

I’ll add photos here of the fabrics and other items ASAP. Meanwhile, enjoy checking out Colourlovers! Oh, and take a look at this pattern that I made with my Santa Fe palette: