TDITM ’26: Plan your colors

Time to choose your palette colors and get your felt ordered if you are sewing along with me for our 2026 Twelve Days In Twelve Months! I’m currently wrestling with this. I’m trying to match the mid century tinseled vibe of my daughter’s inspiration photos, one of which you see here:

I’m squinting and factoring out the overall red color skew of the photo and trying to isolate the actual colors involved. I think I may need to sub in a bright red felt instead of that fuchsia, even though I love it. The struggle is real to discard my own color vision and shoot for something she loves. I’ll keep working on it and then get my daughter’s input. I’m thinking the champagne metallic felt would match the vintage look she loves, but she might prefer the silver? And she might want me to add a yellow/mustard base color. We’ll see! Like last year, the palette will likely remain a little liquid until I get the first few ornaments done.

CHOOSING COLORS NOT YOUR JAM?
Have a look at my pre-chosen color guides. I’ve done the color work for you so you can know exactly how your ornaments will look. There are helpful links for buying the felt/flosses included. Also, here is a cheat for using my color guides as a starting point to customize your own.

ANATOMY OF A COLOR PALETTE:

Above is the breakdown of my 2025 color palette as an example. That palette is a total of 19 sheets of 9 x 12 inch felts to make the whole set. (There’s a list of how many sheets per color at that color palette link.) To choose your own palette, start with a trio or quartet of base colors, add dark and light shades of the base colors, plus a few accents. Sometimes I have three shades of a color, sometimes I have two, sometimes I have four. I’m unpredictable that way. The secret is to have a good range of value so your ornaments look striking, not bland. Depending on how many colors you choose, you’ll end up with an average of 20-25 sheets of 9 x 12 inch felts to complete your set. If you choose a minimal palette (like the limited ones on this tutorial) you can get away with about 15 sheets of felt.

PRINTABLE PLANNER:

Click the above for a PDF to help you plan your own color palette. Download, print it on card stock, then glue or tape on swatches of your felts to help you stay on organized. Make a note of the felt vendor you used and the color names. I referred to my palette a lot last year. It’s very helpful to keep your color vision on track. May I recommend Benzie Design for your felt needs? They have great customer service, plus they stock many of the notions on the materials list.

GOT THE PATTERNS?
For January we’ll be sewing the first pattern, Partridge & Pear, so if you do not have the PDF pattern yet you can get it in my Etsy shop. The best value per pattern is the discounted Complete 1-12 bundle, but you can also buy them singly if you are not sure this project is for you. (If you do buy a single pattern and decide you love it and want the whole set, I’m always happy to refund the single pattern purchase. Just reach out via messaging in my shop.)