Make your own Christmas jumper

Here’s how to turn your old jumper into a Christmas jumper…

I realise there are loads of Christmas jumpers available to buy out there, but with this project, you can really personalise your own and recycle your jumpers at the same time. I’ve gone for quite a subtle theme, but you could really go to town with colour and decorations, depending on what fabric and bits and pieces you’ve got lying about.

You will need:

An old jumper
Some fabric to make the tree shapes (I used old odd gloves and scarves)
Buttons to decorate your trees
Needle and thread
Pins
Scissors
Sewing machine (or you could sew by hand if you don’t have a machine)

Step 1 – cutting out

Cut out three triangle shapes in contrasting fabrics. For this design, I made mine about 12cm tall. Fold the triangles in half as shown and cut your tree branch shapes into it.

Step 2 – layout and pin

Layout your jumper on a flat surface. You could slide a piece of cardboard between the front and back of your jumper to stop any pinning through both layers! Arrange the tree shapes and pin to the front of your jumper.

Step 3 – the sewing bit

Next you’ll need to sew the tree shapes onto the front of the jumper. You could use a running or blanket stitch by hand with a needle and thread. Or if you have a sewing machine, use a running or zig zag stitch to fix the trees to your jumper.

Step 4 – decoration

Once all the stitching has been done, it’s time to decorate your trees. I’ve kept mine quite simple with some wooden buttons. But you might like to try bright coloured trees and contrasting buttons. Or you could make one large tree and decorate with actual baubles!