_MG_0018  #2 ugly sweater thumb for YT
The ugly Christmas sweater trend has always mystified me. I know lots of people really get into it, but frankly I just don’t get it.

If you’re invited to a fun festive party don’t you want to look your best?  I admit I’m a vain person, if I showed up at a Christmas party wearing an ugly sweater it would put a damper on my night. I would much rather look cute/hot or at least stylish?

If you like the ugly Christmas sweater trend, I mean no offense I do understand the fun in going creatively wild, and the freedom to make  something completely tacky without any limits. I think I might enjoy making a totally over-the-top Christmas sweater, with the Christmas lights, bows and 3-d elements, and then gifting it to someone else to wear LOL.

Last week, I went to my favorite local thrift shop,  The Community Resource center in Encinitas, I was surprised to find an entire rack of ugly Christmas sweaters,  priced higher then you would expect, according to the shop manager, ugly Christmas sweaters are huge! She told me they had sold most of their inventory the  previous weekend and that she collects them all year long because they are such great sellers!… Go figure.

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I knew I wanted to reconstruct an ugly Christmas sweater and somehow make it cute, I figured if I could pull this off, it would be quite the crafty challenge. My good friend Bobby said it’s not possible to make an ugly Christmas sweater look good, but I was determined, and when I saw the white cashmere Christmas sweater hanging on the rack I knew it would be perfect!

This is what  it looked like before I cut it up… The photo makes it look much better than it really is, you can see me wearing it in the opening segment of my video… it’s not very flattering on me.

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See how I gave it a makeover in the video,

 

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This project was fairly quick and easy to make, here are some tips that I did not explain on camera,

if you want a big full fluffy pom-poms, pack as much yarn on your pom-pom maker as you can,. The pom pom machine is really handy and fun but you can make a homemade version from cardboard too, check out the Crochet Geek’s tutorial here.

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Look for a sweater that is extra large or very long, you don’t need to use a Christmas sweater, you can use any sweater that you don’t mind cutting up.

It’s ideal to have six, 4 inch strips as long as you can squeeze out of your sweater, stitch the six strips together end to end, so you end up with three very long strips, sew up the sides, right sides facing in and turn out, then braid your long tubes together, as shown in the video.

 

I ended up reinforcing my snowman with a needle in thread to ensure that he stayed together snuggly I also wanted his earmuffs to be low on his face. At first my snowman looked like a cat and the earmuffs looked like ears, I fixed this by tacking his ear muffs down closer to his neck and this solved the problem

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I’m super happy with the way the scarf came out, my mom fell  in love with it, so I gave it to her as an early Christmas present, she wore it to work today and said it was a big hit!

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 Have you ever worn an ugly Christmas sweater? What’s your opinion, fabulous trend or a fashion mistake?

Sincerely,

Debi

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