DIY Ugly Christmas Sweater Pillows

My sister and I have this holiday tradition every year, where we get ugly Christmas sweaters and go get our picture taken at the mall with Santa. It is something special that just us two crazies do together, and we always have a blast! Since we get new sweaters every year, I have several of my old ugly Christmas sweaters laying around in the back of the closet, never to be worn again. So, this year I thought I’d upcycle them into some fun kitschy pillows!

Here’s What You Need:

*Old Christmas Sweaters

*Bias Tape

*Straight Pins

*Trim (ricrac, ball trim, etc…)

*Sewing Machine and Thread

*Scissors

*Ruler

*Marking Pen

Instructions:

First, lay your sweater out and smooth it out nicely. Decide the size you want your pillows and then cut out the sweater accordingly. For my little pillows I cut two 10″ squares from each side of a sweater. For the other two, I cut up the middle so I took an even amount from the middle of each sweater. For example, if I wanted a 16″ (17″ with seam allowance)pillow, I would find the middle of the sweater and mark it. Then I would measure over half of the amount(8.5) and mark out from the middle and do the same for the length of the pillow. Cut the back square of the pillow in half lengthwise or widthwise .

If you are going to add trim, now is a good time. Stitch your trim onto the front of your pillow with right sides touching and trim like pom poms facing inwards towards the middle. If you have bulky trim a zipper foot is great for stitching.

Now on your back pieces sandwich the raw top edge of each side and stitch each piece with bias tape to cover your raw ends.

Lay your front piece face up, then lay each back piece face down onto the front, lining up the edges. Pin in place, and then stitch with a half inch seam allowance all the way around the edges of the pillow. Turn pillow right side out through opening in the back. Insert your pillow form and enjoy!

I LOVE love love love my ugly sweater Christmas pillows! They remind me of those good memories of our Christmas sister dates to see Santa and shop! We always find our ugly sweaters at Goodwill, but you can find them at other places like flea markets and even walmart. Of course you can upcycle regular sweaters too in the same way. I love how festive these are! They are going to be perfect on my sofa this Christmas! So, don’t throw away your old kitschy sweaters, upcycle them into some fun pillows for your space this holiday! I’ll be back tomorrow with another fun Christmas project! Until then…

Happy Crafting!