‘Tis the season for ugly Christmas sweater parties, but a lot of options at thrift stores aren’t that great. Most are just boring striped sweaters with the occasional beading on the pocket. Instead of settling for those boring thrift stores finds, get crafty with DIY ugly Christmas sweater projects. You can even make more than one!
For anyone diving into DIY projects, the first thing to do is to create a Pinterest account. This site, as many have come to find, provides loads of DIY projects and links to blogs, websites, etc. The best part about it—it’s free! I’ve found ideas for my own DIY endeavors, especially those that involve the holidays. The following are a few ideas found on Pinterest for the most creative and easiest DIY ugly Christmas sweaters.
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The first idea is a simple sweater with a small Christmas tree in the center. It’s easy, quick, and adorably ugly! To make this, you’ll only need a few things:
- A slightly oversized crew neck sweatshirt (of any holiday color)
- Red-with-white-polka dot ribbon
- Green-and-white striped ribbon
- Hot glue gun
INSTRUCTIONS:
Cut nine medium length pieces of the green ribbon. Loosely fold the ends of each piece together and hot glue it closed. Then shape the folded pieces of green ribbon into the tree by placing two pieces in the top row, three in the middle row, and four in the bottom row. Hot glue them into place making sure the loops of the ribbon face downward. Also, be sure to hot glue the top of each row under the bottom of the row above it. Then cut a longer piece from the red ribbon and tie it in a bow. Hot glue the red bow on top of the tree and your tree is complete! If you want, cut pieces of red ribbon that will fit your wrists and hot glue it into the wrists of the sweater for some added décor!
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The next option is another creative Christmas tree idea and perfect if you are willing to put a little more work in to grab some attention! Make your whole torso and arms into a decked out tree for your next shindig!
To make a sweater that makes YOU a Christmas tree, here’s what you will need:
- A slightly oversized GREEN crew neck sweatshirt
- Gold or silver garland
- Multicolored cotton pom-pom balls
- Hot glue gun
INSTRUCTIONS:
To make a fully decorated tree sweater, simply cut strips of the garland that are the width of the sweatshirt and hot glue them in rows at a slight diagonal, to give the appearance of looping around. Next, hot glue the multicolored pom-pom balls around the sweatshirt at your own creative discretion. If you want to make this sweater even more ornate, add some custom ornaments to your tree. Using felt, cut out and hot glue on some Frosty, Rudolph and Santa ornaments to hang on the sweater. Feel free to hot glue some of your ornaments along the under part of your arm to give a hanging illusion. The red star tree topper is optional, but if you can find one already made I’d say go for it!
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This last idea is my personal favorite. I love dressing up for parties and the idea of wearing a sweater and jeans is a little dull to me—even though there’s nothing dull about these sweaters. Try an ugly Christmas sweater DRESS! You will look cute, even if it is your “ugliest” attire.
Here’s what you will need:
- An above-the-knee (preferably velvet) plain dress, of any holiday color
- Red, green and gold decorations such as bows, garland, braided rope, bells, pompoms, etc.
- A large, red wreath bow
- Hot glue gun
INSTRUCTIONS:
Even though a lot of materials are listed on this one, it’s actually pretty easy! For the lower skirt portion of the dress, make rows with different decorations to essentially make a skirt out of décor. Hot glue them on as you like! If you are going to use bells, I suggest putting on a little bit of extra hot glue and really making sure it’s permanently on there, as they will get a little heavy. Then, all you need to do is hot glue your wreath bow just above the chest and you are set to go in this super chic “ugly” Christmas dress!
All of the materials for these ideas—apart from the black dress—are available at local craft stores such as A.C. Moore and Michaels. You can find more ideas for ugly Christmas sweaters on Pinterest where these were found! Even if you’re heading home for the holidays, you can still tap into your creative side and make these holiday outfits for those many holiday parties you still have to attend.