Time To Get Ugly

That's right. They used to be fabulous, then they went out of style and now they are ironically back to haunt our dreams of sugar plums. You know what I'm talking about. It's the Ugly Sweater.

Scott and I were invited to our first ugly sweater party this year and I wanted to do it up right. After shopping around a bit, I found that paying for the ugliness I sought would mean paying at least $60. That's quite a bit to spend for a sweater you only get to wear once a year, so I looked into my DIY options.

That's when I found this. (Of course it was on Pinterest)

I sent a picture to Scott and he was sold. He couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a video of fire on his phone attached to his sweater. I figured, "That'd be easy enough to do" and grabbed some supplies.

I got us each a sweatshirt from Walmart. I also grabbed a tan piece of felt, some red puffy t-shirt paint, and a quarter of a yard of clear vinyl (thankfully our Walmart has a fabric section. This downsized the amount of places I had to go).

For my sweater, I got everything at the dollar store, but more about mine later.

I laid out Scott's sweater.

I loosely arranged everything on it, then I began by making the pouch for the phone. I cut out a rectangle of the vinyl that was large enough for my phone when doubled over (we have the same size phone), then sewed it up on two sides. I have a sewing machine, which made this a thousand times easier, but you might be able to accomplish this with hot glue, too.

I then placed my felt on top of it and marked just inside of my newly sewn vinyl seams. This would allow the fireplace to cover up the pouch. Then I just cut an appropriately sized hole.

Here is the dry fit.

I lined it up on the sweater and sewed it on for strength. Make sure not to sew up the top of the fireplace! You need a way to get your phone in!

You can use matching thread if you'd like, but I didn't want to spend any more money than I had to. I also kept thinking, "This doesn't need to be PERFECT. It is an "UGLY" Sweater Party after all!"

I then prepped it to paint on the mortar for the "bricks". Be sure to put something inside the sweater underneath where you are painting so that it doesn't go through.

I waited four hours for my puff paint mortar to dry, then I added on the wreath (with bells!) I found at the dollar store with hot glue above the fire place. It was time for a dry run.

Actually, that's wine, so maybe it wasn't a completely dry run, but you know what I mean.

There were just a few added touches that I thought it needed. I found some red, white, and brown felt pieces in my fabric bin, so I added a mantel and some stockings. I then cut my own stencil and put the obligatory 'sweater pattern' to really give it the traditional ugly sweater look. I was pretty pleased with the final result.

Scott loved it! Everyone at the party called him, "Fireplace guy!" all night, so we really think it was a big hit. He even wants to wear it to work on Friday!

As for my sweater, I went for an easier approach. I had grabbed a green sweater from the men's section at Walmart (because the ladies only had teal). At the dollar store, I grabbed tinsel, some ornaments, and a star. I sewed the tinsel onto the sweater and just looped the ornaments directly into the fabric with their ornament hangers. I was a Christmas tree!

I even got into the tacky spirit by painting my nails with some of the traditional sweater patterns (with my friend Casey's help, of course).

I would have to say that our first Ugly Sweater Party was a success! We had a great time and got to see our friends Alex and Laurie in the process.

For anyone wondering, both of our sweaters cost $25 for all of the materials. In all. That's it. So if you're considering try this out yourself, I absolutely recommend it!