Upcycle a jumper for Christmas

A festive black jumper adorned with colourful fabric Christmas trees and green satin bows over a leopard-print blouse.

Have you ever turned up at the Christmas festivities with the same Christmas sweater as someone else? Well you won't be doing that again this year! I have the perfect solution to upcycle a sweater for Christmas that you already own and recreate a brand new look for a fraction of the price and also save on any clothing ending up in landfill.

I was originally inspired by a sweater I had seen in an advert on social media, and I had the idea of recreating it using crochet. I didn't have enough time to crochet a whole sweater and all the decoration to go on it too. Hence my brainwave of recreating the sweater I had seen by using an old sweater I had in the drawer and just crochet the decoration bits to simulate the design I was inspired by. This is still waiting to be finished off, the finished photo will be added soon!

Which then led me on to another great idea and design, again upcycling an old sweater or T-shirt you already own. Below I have put basic instructions on how to upcycle a jumper for Christmas by using crochet and adding fabric, both ideas are very simple and an easy and fun way to get creative.

Using crochet to upcycle a jumper for Christmas

If you are handy with a crochet hook, then it's really easy to crochet some triangles to make little tree. and you can then decorate them with little beads to look like baubles. You can add a bow to act as the tree stump/trunk.

How to crochet a tree

1. using a 4mm crochet hook chain 12

2. Do a HTC (half treble crochet UK) in the 2nd stitch from the hook

3. do a HTC in every stitch to the end

4. do a turning chain

5. do a HTC in the 2nd stitch from the hook

6. HTC in every stitch to the end

7. repeat in this fashion until you have 1 stitch remaining

8. cast off, you should have a tree shape

You can make them bigger or smaller by making your chain longer or shorter. To make really small ones use a smaller hook.

I used a 4mm hook and double knit yarn to create my trees.

You can make bauble shapes by crocheting a circle and you can add bows to create the little cap on top. Or you can create it with crochet.

I also made long chains which I then sewed on to add to the design. As I always say the only limit is your imagination.

Using fabric to Upcycle a jumper for Christmas

I had the idea of sewing on Christmas trees cut out of fabric and then adding bows and embellishments. If you hate sewing or you are pressed for time then you can use heat & bond. Which is a great product for bonding fabrics together. I remembered that I had a big roll of this that I had bought for another project.

Again you can do any shape you like, you just iron the boding to the fabric, cut out your shape, peel off the backing, position the cut out where you want it on your jumper, place a tea towel on top and using a hot iron, press firmly over the shape and it should bond onto your jumper.

Check out the video to see how I upcycled a Christmas jumper

A video showing you how to apply heat and bond fabric applique

I have put packs together so you can upcycle your jumper for Christmas using fabric and the heat and bond method. The packs come with a sheet of heat and bond, 3 pieces of Christmas fabric, 3 satin bows and a bag of assorted embellishments. These packs are available on the online shop. A quick and easy festive jumper is just a click away!

Christmas applique with heat & bond

£4.95

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