How to Make Your Own Ugly Sweater

In the past decade the ugly holiday sweater has become iconic. Chances are you’ll be invited to at least one ugly sweater party this season, which means you need to figure out what to wear! Now that ugly sweaters have become so popular, you can literally go to Target and buy one, but if you’re on a budget or just love to get into the holiday spirit, you can totally make your own too. Here’s how…

The Basics: If you’re lucky you might be able to find a vintage ugly sweater at a thrift store to start with, however these days those are hard to come by. But no worries, you can start with a plain sweater ideally in white, red or green.

Research Inspiration: Creating your own ugly sweater can be daunting, but the great thing about the internet is that you can always find inspiration. We’d recommend starting out on Pinterest to check out what other people have done. There is no shortage of ugly sweater DIYs and photos to give you ideas.

The Design: Next up is figuring what exactly you want to put on your sweater. Maybe a reindeer, a tree or Santa? There’s a lot of possibilities, but if you figure this part out before buying supplies you’re ahead of the game.

Supplies: Once you have a good idea of what you want to do for your ugly sweater, next up is buying supplies. Your local craft store is sure to have plenty of holiday related decor you can add to your sweater. Here are a couple of ideas:

• You can buy felt and cut it out to create a tree, reindeer or whatever you’d like.
• You can use holiday charms to sew onto your sweater.
• Don’t forget about utilizing ribbon and tinsel!

Along with the supplies to put on your sweater, you’ll also need a hot glue gun, thread and a needle, and a good scissor.

Create Your Ugly Sweater: Once you have everything ready to go, now comes the fun part! Creating your one of a kind ugly sweater. Take an afternoon or evening and have fun with process. Give yourself plenty of time and maybe put on a seasonal movie in the background to get you into the holiday spirit.

You could also have a DIY ugly sweater gathering with your friends. Grab some hot cider, all your supplies, holiday music and invite your friends over to make your sweaters together.

This way you’ll all be ready to show off your very own creation at the next ugly sweater party!