The Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest

The Task: My friends and I had a holiday party and an Ugly Christmas Sweater contest. My friend, Lisa Marie, gave me the idea of making a Christmas tree sweater.  BRILLIANCE! SHEER BRILLIANCE!, I said.  Well, not exactly.  But, I did get really, really excited at the idea of creating this little twinkling gem. 

The Ingredients: Two wire hangers (Sorry, Joan. They really come in handy when you're making arts and crafts.), a green sweater (the looser the stitching, the better), fun ornaments, plastic ball ornaments, candy canes, some ornaments shaped like gifts, tinsel, battery-operated lights, hot glue gun, a star, packing tape, two 3-4 inch strips of fabric, batteries for the light show

The Purchase Locations: Giant Dollar (a bootleg 99cents only store around my old neighborhood that I LOVE), Rite Aid (for the colored lights), The G-Dub (aka The Goodwill)

In the 99cents only stores defense, they did have lights, but they were too big to fit through the tiny holes in my sweater.

The Cost: Approx. $25.00

It took me: about 3 hours.  (I think it would have happened a lot quicker...and would have been a lot less painless...if I had a helper.  It's probably not the best idea to hot glue gun anything to a sweater while you're wearing it. :-)

How to:

1.  Bend two wire hangers into the shape of half-circles and tape them together into a circle with packing tape.

2. Stretch the bottom of the sweater over the circle hanger and glue the hanger into the bottom of the sweater. (This doesn't have to be too neat, 'cause you'll be covering this part with tinsel.) This creates the 'Christmas Tree' shape for your sweater.

3. Hot glue the tinsel around the sweater as if you are hanging tinsel on a Christmas tree. Start by gluing the tinsel around the bottom ring of the sweater, then work your way up.  When you get to the arms, you'll need to put the sweater on and place your arms over your head before you glue the tinsel. This is so you'll be able to simulate the full Christmas tree effect in the arm area.  This is the tricky part. Be careful when you glue the tinsel on while wearing the sweater.  Hot glue and skin don't go together.  If you don't have a helper, like me, just use a tiny bit of glue to hold the tinsel in place, then take the sweater off and go hot glue crazy. 

4. Take a strip of fabric and glue it on both ends (leaving a space in the middle to tuck the battery pack) underneath the sweater on one side.  Repeat on the opposite side.   

5.  Add batteries to the battery packs and add the packs to the fabric pockets.

6. Glue the gift ornaments along the front of the sweater.  I kept them on their strings 'cause it was easier that way.

7. Now comes the fun part (I'm kidding)...the lights! The lights need to be pushed through the sweater from the inside out.  I put a bit of glue around each bulb to hold it in place.  I strung the lights on the right side of the sweater up the front of the sweater and down the left sleeve.  And, I strung the lights on the left side of the sweater up the front of the sweater and down the right sleeve.

8. After the lights were all glued into place, I taped the wires down to the inside of the sweater with packing tape.  This was a good idea 'cause it made it easier to put the sweater on and take it off.  It kept me from snagging the loose wires and ripping the lights out of the sweater.

9. Hot glue the ornaments onto the outside of the sweater.  I glued the arm ornaments on while I was wearing the sweater so I could make the "tree" look as real as possible.  Remember, use the glue lightly...hot glue hurts.  You can add extra glue after you take the sweater off.  

10. Hang the candy canes on the tinsel. (I got the pre-wrapped ones so people could eat them if they wanted.  And, I put them on right before I joined the party so they wouldn't crack or fall off.)

Overall, the sweater was way more comfortable than I thought.  I was able to move around freely in it.  It did get a bit hot and I lost a few candy canes over the night.  But, it was no biggie.  I held my star throughout the night, so I could be ready to pose on cue.  (You could attach the star to your wrist with a string or rubber band, so you don't have to hold it).

As far as the contest,  we were havin' too much fun and never actually got around to it. But, I think I would have at least been in the running to win. :-)