Sewing a travel capsule wardrobe you can wear year after year is a goal for many sewists. You want to sew for the trip you’re taking next weekend to the next city over, or the city down south with the warm beaches, or the village in Europe with the cobblestone streets. But the same capsule wardrobe that works there, puts hardworking garments in your everyday wardrobe too.
There’s a meme that says “don’t add more to your wardrobe, travel where people have never seen your clothes before” And I laughed out loud at that! I traveled to Prague and Austria and Wurtzburg in Germany in 2023. I traveled again to Wurtzburg (my kids do overseas study in that city), Innsbruck, the Dolomites, Lake Como and Milan in 2025. I wore almost the exact same things (I added another skirt and blouse to the mix and also added some hiking clothes.)
These hardworking garments keep me going at home too. In this group: knit midi skirt (shown left), linen loose slip dress, pieced blue top and shorts, linen dress again, pieced blue top with blue pants, black pieced top (worn with wide leg black linen/cotton pants, not shown.)
This summer capsule works for me everywhere. I wore the blue linen set on the plane over – and our first flight was canceled, so I wore that same outfit for nearly 2 days (back to a hotel after our flight was canceled, wore the emergency undies I packed in my carryon backpack the next day, then back to the airport and then overseas and finally to our hotel 40 hours later.) I wore it on the plane back (I had a sweater for over it both directions.)
4 bottoms: Shorts, midi skirt, 2 pair of linen / cotton pants
5 tops – tank top (purchased), blue pieced top, black pieced top, white tee (not shown, sewn about 15 years ago and another raglan blouse (similar to the Remy Raglan). I also brought a tube top to Italy and wore it with a midi skirt as a “dress” outfit.
1 dress: linen slip dress shown here
1 sweater (not shown) – I’ve rotated through sweaters or a lightweight poncho as my “outerwear” depending on the trip and time of year. I think for this trip in 2023 I brought a lightweight wool poncho and a rain coat, not a sweater, and I am sure in 2025 I brought a long sleeve cycling shirt, the poncho and the rain coat (along with bike shorts because we had an active vacation planned.)
3 pair of shoes (sneakers, worn on plane, Birkenstocks, and Teva sandals)
As you can see by these photos, I’ve also worn these outfits at home for years now. Do people at home notice my outfits? No. I work from home, people hardly see me except on Zoom occasionally.
I am headed to London this summer for a concert, and a few days after (my spouse will work for a few days there at his company’s corporate office.) I’ll bring most of these things (or all of them) again, because the Londoners will have never seen these clothes either.
