Tacky Christmas Sweater!

I had a ton of fun making this for my tacky sweater party! It was really cheap and easy to make, and I finished it in one night. I bought a plain red sweater from Goodwill for a few bucks, some felt, and some hot glue. I already glued some felt on before I took the photos (oops). I hope you have fun making yours!

Step 1: What You Will Need...

*sweater (second hand thrift stores are the best!)
*felt
*beads, small Christmas themed objects, or anything that you have on hand that you think will be just tacky enough for your sweater
*scrap paper for tracing your patterns, making sketches, and working on (it's a good idea to put your glue gun and any pieces you are gluing on a piece of paper)
*glue gun and glue sticks to fit
*marker (I used a marker that washes off of fabric, but I'm not so sure I'll be able to wash my sweater, so any light colored marker will do)

Step 2: What to Add and How

I found this pretty felt with black floral swirls on it, so I decided to showcase it on the collar. First, I traced the shape of the collar onto my paper and cut it out. I set it on top and trimmed it until it was just right. Then, I cut out my felt and did the same thing, using the paper as the template for both sides, NOT the first felt cutout. You don't want to end up with one being bigger than the other. Finally, I glued them to the sweater.

I repeated the step for the trees. The candy canes were a bit tricky, since I didn't think to buy red felt. I drew a candy cane on my paper and cut it out, then cut out the felt as a whole, white candy cane. Then, I cut the diagonal lines in it, which gave me little rhombuses. I, then, used every other rhombus, splitting them into two groups and keeping the order. I rearranged them into two candy canes and glued them, leaving space between for the stripes.

I did this for all of my shapes. It was pretty simple.

Step 3: Accidents

I had a spot where the hot glue was visible, so I covered it up with stars. I was already going to put them there, but I made that star a little bigger to cover it up.

Step 4: Matching Shoe Clips!

I made four of these little bows by cutting strips of leftover felt and gluing the ends together. First, I layered them with just one end from each on top of the next to make a star, gluing between each as I went. Then, I folded over the other end of each at an angle so that the loop was visible, gluing each one as I went. I glued my beads to one side to cover up the middle where the pieces overlap.

I put two on the sweater and turned the other two into shoe clips by attaching wire to the bottom. Paperclips would work equally well for this, even without bending it, but I had a spool of wire, so I twisted it into a spiral and fit it to my shoe.

Step 5: FINISHED!

I hope you have fun making yours!