How to Make an Ugly Christmas Sweater

  The world has embraced the ugly Christmas sweater. There is something freeing about celebrating that which is deemed as ugly, unattractive or unfashionable. My work's holiday party was an ugly sweater themed party, but alas, I had no ugly sweater. I also did not relish the idea of buying an ugly sweater. Thrift stores these days aren't as naive as they once were, and now ugly sweaters can cost quite a pretty penny. Instead, I decided to make my own ugly sweater. Not only did it give me a chance to be creative, but my sweater was sure too a one of a kind.

Here is a tutorial on how to make your very own ugly Christmas sweater!

Here is what you will need to make your ugly sweater:

( Sweater, dye, needle, thread, felt, iron on letters, and accessories such as sequins, jingle bells, beads, poof balls and googly eyes.)

STEP ONE: Dye your sweater. If you chose a sweater that is already a holiday color or a color you like, you can skip this step. I used a pale green sweater that I have had for a while and no longer wear. But if you do not already have a sweater that you are willing to sacrifice to this project, the thrift store has lots of plain, cheap sweaters, some of which will already be red or green.

 I dyed my sweater in a big soup pot that was lined with a plastic bag so I would not ruin the soup pot. You can dye sweaters by using hot water on the stove, but of course I could not do this method due to the plastic bag. My sweater ended up being more of a deep pink color than red, so keep this in mind when you choose which method you want to use to dye your sweater. 

STEP TWO: Design time! First sketch out a couple of ideas. Once you have settled on a design, draw it on a piece of paper  the size you want it on your sweater. Cut out the different peices. This is your template.

STEP THREE: Cut out the pieces of your design from the felt. Pin together and sew the littler pieces together before you sew the entire design on to the sweater. 

STEP FOUR: Sew your design onto your sweater. Pin the design on to the sweater, get your thread and needles and sew away!

STEP FIVE: Start adding accessories. After your main design is sewn on, it is time to start adding accessories. The accessories are a very important part on an ugly sweater. They are what turn a cute sweater into something gaudy. I added a jingle bell to the cat's bow tie and fuzzy balls to the cats hat.

STEP SIX: Letter time! Of course it is not necessary to have words on your sweater, but a corny pun adds to the tackiness that an ugly sweater is suppose to embrace. Before I made my sweater, my three ideas were a Christmas dog that said "Happy Howlidays," a Christmas dinosaur that said "Christmas is dinomite!" or the one I settled on, a Christmas cat saying "Meowy Christmas."

Fuzzy iron on letters are an easy way to add words to your sweater. It takes no time at all. First you peal the letters from the letter sheet, arrange them on your sweater and put a hot iron on the letters for fifteen seconds on the front and fifteen seconds on the back. 

STEP SEVEN: Sequins time! Sequins are practically required in a homemade ugly sweater. What better way to embrace the festivity of the holidays with shimmering, sparkling sequins!

STEP EIGHT: Make sure to include any final touches. My final touch were the huge googly eyes. I felt like this is what really pushed my sweater over the top to be ugly. 

Voila! Your sweater is done. You now have your very own ugly sweater which not only celebrates the fun of the season, but was fun to create!