6 Amazing DIY Ugly Christmas Sweater Ideas (Including 1 for Hanukkah)

Tools and materials:

• Red, black, and white long-sleeved sweatshirts or sweaters
• Assorted felt
• Assorted ornaments, tinsel, and other dollar-store decorations
• White puffy paint
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Fabric glue

Ugly Christmas sweater 1 - wreath

Cut out leaf shapes in three shades of green felt.

Use fabric glue to attach the felt leaves onto both sleeves of a white sweater from shoulder to wrist.

Add a big red Christmas bow to the top center and you’ve got one ugly Christmas sweater!

Ugly Christmas sweater 2 - menorah sweater for Hanukkah

Start with a plain black long-sleeved pullover sweatshirt.

Cut leaf shapes from yellow paper and use a hot glue gun to attach them to the sweater across both sleeves and one in the top center. 

Glue a long strand of tinsel to the bottom points of each flame, draping the tinsel across your whole sweater. Now wave to your friends to get the full effect of this ugly Hanukkah sweater!

Ugly Christmas sweater 3 - Xmas tree sweater

Use a plain white long-sleeved pullover sweater as your canvas for this ugly Christmas sweater.

Cut out a small block square and a large green Christmas tree from felt. 

Use fabric glue to attach the tree to the front of the sweater and use the black square as the tree base.

Now make four small Christmas presents from patterned fleece, pompoms, and scrap fabric.

Glue the presents to your sweater, under the tree. 

Finally, trim the tree using bits of felt, pompoms, cut strings of Christmas lights and glue.

That’s a pretty festive ugly Christmas sweater to wear while you’re sipping some eggnog!

Ugly Christmas sweater 4 - festive doggy sweater

Trace and cut a large bone shape from a piece of yellow felt. 

Now cut two leaf shapes from green sparkly felt. Fold the shapes in half and glue the ends together. Hang on – you’ll see where this is going!

Cut a long thin rectangle from the same green felt and glue the “leaves” to the top of the rectangle.

Almost there! Wrap the end of the rectangle around the middle of the “leaves” and trim off the end of the rectangle leaving about 1 inch remaining.

See where I was headed with this? Now wrap the end of the rectangle around the center of the “leaves” and glue it in place. Voila! It was never leaves – it was a bow!

Add a couple of ribbon ends to the bow to complete it.

Glue the bone, bow, and some small gems to the back of a red hooded sweatshirt.

Now fold a piece of brown felt in half and cut out an antler shape from both layers of felt. Glue the two antlers together so you have one fairly stiff antler.

Make a second antler from the brown felt.

Add some faux fur trim to the neckline.

Glue the antlers to the hood of the sweatshirt.

Now you’ve got Rudolph the not-so-red-nosed puppy!

Ugly Christmas sweater 5 - 3D Christmas tree

Use green tinsel to shape a Christmas tree on the front of a plain red sweater.

Tip: slide a piece of cardboard inside the sweater before gluing the tree onto it. That will give you a firmer surface to press on.

Add a brown felt tree trunk and some small gift ornaments under the tree.

Glue on some strings of beads and small ornaments to decorate the tree.

Glue green tinsel and ornaments to the sleeve cuffs and you’ve created your fifth ugly Christmas sweater!

Ugly Christmas sweater 6 - elf on the shelf

This one is also made on the backdrop of a plain red long-sleeved sweatshirt. Start by chalking out a brick pattern on the front of the sweatshirt. 

Now use white puffy fabric paint to draw the brick lines.

Create a fireplace by cutting out a mantel from two pieces of thick cardboard and gluing the layers together.

Cover the top of the fireplace with some wallpaper or wrapping paper that resembles a hearth. Glue a photo of a log fire to the back, so the fire shows in the right spot in the fireplace. 

Add a narrow piece of covered cardboard to the top of the hearth for the mantel, and then glue the whole fireplace to the front of your sweatshirt against the wall.

(I didn't show this part, but use the body of a little elf doll or make a little elf body yourself to stick to the neckline - so your face becomes the elf's!)

Decorate the fireplace, add the little Elf on the Shelf on top and you’ve got yourself what might just be the ugliest of ugly Christmas sweaters!

DIY ugly Christmas sweater tutorial

Don’t forget to accessorize your ugly Christmas sweaters with appropriate headwear and footwear to complete your look! Leave a comment to let me know which of these six ugly Christmas sweaters was your favorite!