Pictures of the Best DIY Christmas Sweaters of All Time (and how to make them yourself!)

Are you looking for a contest-winning Christmas sweater for this year's party? If you're looking to decorate your own homemade Christmas sweater this year, then check out these pictures of funny Christmas sweaters for some inspiration.  We've crafted thousands of DIY Christmas sweaters over the last 10 years, and want to show you our best of our best.

 

 

Store bought holiday sweaters are great (and some are really funny too!) but if you're goal is to walk away with an Ugliest Sweater trophy, then you'll need to be creative.

All of these featured sweaters were created by Anne Marie Blackman, who was a pioneer in the DIY Christmas sweater craze that began in 2008.  Anne Marie started her business My Ugly Christmas Sweater decorating and selling up-cycled Ugly Christmas Sweaters.  She sold them to customers who were looking for contest-winning sweaters to wear to holiday parties.

 

Alien Baby Christmas Sweater

The Alien Baby Christmas sweater was inspired by the 1979 movie "Alien" and a little doll dressed as Santa that was found in a dollar-bin at a Salvation Army store.  A perfect accessory! The doll was sewn onto the belly of a tattered fuchsia 3XL women's sweater that was trimmed with pom pom fringe. Green tree garland was sewn around the alien Santa baby, framing it's position on the abdomen. One of most frightening and amazing sweaters of all time - this was snapped up by a man from Texas who obviously had a great sense of humor.

For more pictures of Christmas sweaters with 3D decorations: See our 3D Christmas sweater pictures.  There's pages of Christmas sweater pictures to scroll through to get some great ideas!

 

Glowing Styrofoam Snowman Christmas Sweater

When choosing a decoration to add to a Christmas sweater, it would be a mistake to discount a perfectly great item because you don't know how to attach it.  This Glowing Snowman sweater is a great example. The glowing snowman is actually a table decoration. It's made of styrofoam and has an on-off switch on it's base. When pushed to the ON position, the three sections of the snowman glow in a rotating series of pastel colors. The snowman is attached to the sweater via a several step process. First, pom pom fringe is glued with a hot glue gun around the entire snowman bottom and between each section. Then, the snowman is attached to the sweater by sewing the fringe to the sweater. The hat and scarf are also sewn to the sweater. This sweater is all the more ridiculous because it's a pastel sweater with pom pom accents and not the typical holiday colors.

 

 

Macrame Tree Christmas Sweater

When we first started selling DIY (i.e. home-decorated) Christmas sweaters back in 2008 our first indication of success was the crazy popularity of a sweater decorated with a vintage macrame Christmas tree.  Back in the 70's, macrame crafts were super popular, particularly for holiday decorations.  Now days, you can occasionally find these macrame trees in thrift shops or eBay. They're like gold for decorating Christmas sweaters! Here are two examples that we created: One for a mens sweater, and the other for a dress.
 

 

The incredibly long macrame tree that's on the dress was bought from someone who had it on their outdoor porch for the holidays. For over 30 years. Talk about upcycling! The tree is attached to a pre-owned green corduroy jumper by sewing all around the edges of the tree. It's heavy! So it must be securely attached with lots of secure stitching.  Lights were added to the tree by poking through the lights of a 10-light string of lights that works off of 2-AA batteries. (You can find at craft shops or sometimes big box stores.) The battery pack is hidden in a pocket. The dress is paired with a vintage holiday turtleneck.  Fringe and ornaments are glue-gunned to the dress for added pizazz. And the ornaments on the tree? They were actually on the macrame tree when it was found. You could add your own ornaments though by just using regular ornament hanging clips.

 

 

Looking for more pictures? See more pictures of sweaters and dresses decorated with macrame.

We've decorated hundreds of Christmas dresses over the years with all kinds of bows, bells, fringe, lights, and crafty decorations. Browse through all the pictures to get ideas for your own  adorable (but tacky!) dress here in our Christmas Sweater Dress pictures.

 

3D Springy Boobies Christmas Sweater

To get in the mindset of creating an amazing Christmas sweater you have to be open to using any holiday item on the sweater.  Think out of the box! The 3D Springy Boobie Christmas sweater utilizes two springy Santa hats as accessories to create the 3D look.  We sold hundreds of these sweaters which became exceptionally in-demand when one was featured in a Holiday Sweater Fashion Show on The Ellen Show, and later on the same show worn by Christine Agulara.  To make one yourself, you'll need two springy Santa hats (found here). Remove the cap portion. Hand sew the bottom of the hat to the sweater. Cover the lower layer of spring (where you sewed) with garland via a glue gun.

 

 

The springy booby Christmas sweater was featured on The Ellen Show Christmas Sweater Fashion Show and given to Christine Aguilera after she admired it on the show.

Looking for more pictures? See tons of pictures of sweaters decorated with springy boobies.

Hook Rug Christmas Sweaters

Hook rugs were another popular craft in the 70s and 80s, and you can still find completed pieces at thrift stores that have holiday themes.  To make a hook rug, little pieces of colored yarn are looped through a mesh backing to create a pattern. Kind of like paint by numbers but with yarn. To attach a hook rug to a sweater, you just need to hand sew the edges of the mesh backing to the sweater. Because the rug accessory can be heavy, you should also attached the middle area of the hook run to the sweater by turning the item inside out and hand sewing from the back. 

 This amazing festive teddy bear hook rug is sewn onto a women's knit-style poncho. Wow - perfect for plus size men and women to wear because it's one-size-fits-all!  Lights were added to this hook rug prior to sewing it onto the poncho by poking the lights through the back of the mesh. There's a little battery pack stored in a pocket inside the hem of the ponch. Added touches include golden tree garland hot-glued around the hook rug, and long dangling tapestry fringe sewn all around the hem of the poncho.

 

 

 

Want to see more pictures with Hook Rug Sweaters? See all our pictures of hook rug sweaters and dresses.

 

Remembering that it's Jesus' Birthday is the Reason for the Season, and this religious themed vest was created after finding a vintage Jesus Hook Rug at a thrift store. Now there are many manufactures who produce Jesus themed Christmas sweaters, so you can buy one if you aren't able to find a 70's hook rug that fits the theme.

 

JOY Light Up Christmas Sweater

Guess where the JOY decoration on the below sweater came from? It's cut out from a holiday themed floor mat! No kidding. The mat is sewn onto the sweater at the edges and also around the center of the decoration. The material is rug-like but oh-so-joyful.  It works great on plus size sweaters that will fit such a big decorations. Lights were added by poking holes in the mat and pushing the lights through. There's a battery pack and on/off switch for the lights in a little pocket sewn into the inside of the sweater hem.  Additional 3D bead garland and pom poms and red glittery tree garland was added to the sweater with a hot glue gun.

 

Crafty Puffy Snowman Christmas Sweaters with Lights

These snowman decorations come from the most unlikely of places....the bath goods section of a big-box store. They're toilet seat covers! They're great for an ugly Christmas sweater decoration when they are brand-new. Most of these crafty items already have some stuffing in them and can easily be hand sewn to the front of a sweater.  Google-eyes are added (with a glue gun) along with battery powered lights and garland. Fringe can be sewn onto the collar and hem for an added touch of tacky.

 

Here's another example of a super fun ugly Christmas sweater that has a toilet seat cover as it's primary decoration.  Who knew they could be so adorable! 

Want more examples with pictures? See all our Puffy Sweaters that have funny 3d decorations.

 

 

And here's a third example of an over-the-top amazing Christmas sweater that is decorated with a puffy toilet seat cover, and then embellished with fringe, lights, and holiday charm. SEe the little red mini-stocking on the sweater? That holds the light battery pack with the on/off switch.

 

Vintage 80s Christmas Sweater with Pink Fringe and Real Ornaments

Some crafty decorations can take an adorable vintage 80s Christmas sweater from cute to amazing.  What sets this sweater apart is the unexpected pink fringe. Rather than go with the usual red or green, it's decorated with hot pink fringe that's from the trimmings of a 50's chenille bedspread.  Full sized ornaments are also unexpected on a sweater and add to the charm of this favorite. 

This sweater has great decorations on the back too. For all pictures: see front and back of pink fringe vintage sweater.

 

That blue sweater with pink trim that we made a few years ago was so popular that someone actually used it as a model to make a cake!

 

Simply Decorated Winning Christmas Sweater

A contest winning Christmas sweater doesn't have to be over the top to be great. This spectacular sweater has only a few pieces to it, but OH, What a statement it makes! The Santa decoration is really just a vintage thin plastic face mask.  A Santa hat was glued to the mask. Then the hat and beard could be sewn onto the sweater.  Lights were added through the beard, and a interior pocket added for the battery pack and on/off switch.  A thin strand of gold garland frames the Santa decoration and is hand sewn onto the sweater.

 

Trump and Obama Festive Politicians Christmas Sweaters

Adding a real face to a Christmas sweater is a super fun way to create a contest winning sweater.  We started selling Christmas sweaters on eBay just before President Obama first took office. Our Festive Obama sweaters were so popular and shared on social media that they received eBay's "Top Shared" award, meaning that they were the #1 shared item on Facebook on all of eBay for the day.

All the pieces of the festive politician sweater decorations are adhered to the sweater with a hot-glue gun.  Faces can be cut from Fabric that already has a face on it, or can be printed from a jpg onto fabric-paper that you can get at craft stores or on Amazon. Cut out shapes for a mini-sweater, gloves, hat etc.  Start by glueing on the face, then add other features.

 

President Trump festive sweaters were also super popular choices.   We've found that it's usually fans of a particular politician who choose to wear their candidate's face on a sweater.  Over the years we've featured many politicians faces on sweaters and by far the most popular have been President Obama and President Trump. 

You can make your own personalized sweater using a face of a family member, co-worker or even yourself as a featured face. 

 Looking for more face sweater pictures and sweater examples? See more pictures of Christmas sweaters with faces of President Obama, Bush, or Trump, and also other political candidates like Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, Mike Huckabee, VP Biden, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio in our Political Christmas Sweater collection.

 

NOTE: Use of pictures from this site must contain credit to MyUglyChristmasSweater.com AND a link-back to this site.