DIY Christmas jumper

The Christmas celebrations are just around the corner and some of you might still be planning on where to get a new Christmas jumper. In my current job we have a 'Christmas jumper competition' which is why I created one. I also managed to get one of the top prizes for the second time in a row of my participation so felt pretty delighted for my creation's recognition. 

I am going to show you how to make your own and how to have a bit of fun along the way.

To make your own Christmas jumper you will need: 

jumper

decorative stickers

jingle bells

sparkly ribbon

glue & cotton wool (which I couldn't use but you could!)

The first step is to try on the jumper you bought and see how it fits on you so that you have some sort of idea of where the folds are visible or how high/low you should place your center piece. I bought my jumper in Primark for only a couple of euros. It is actually a nice quality jumper so I will be using   it after the festive season for a normal daily wear.

When you have established how the jumper sits on you then lay it out on a flat surface and spread around the stickers so that your creative brain can begin the fun process of exploration and creation.

Once you have the pack of stickers open, observe the different shapes and colours that are available to you. Play around with the ribbon fabric to see how it can be folded and used to complement your theme. As you can see I began by placing some snow flakes on what would be my shoulder area and added 'HoHoHo' message sticker which would sit above my heart. 

In my sticker pack I pretty quickly noticed the Christmas trees as they were the opposite colour to my jumper and would look good in terms of colour which played a big part when I was selecting the decorative pieces in the Euro shop. 

Based on the colour I took out the Christmas trees and thought 'Why don't I make a Big Christmas tree? The shapes would allow me to!'. So I did and also realised I have a yellow star which could be stuck on a silver one to create a more affective top for the tree. I then added the jingle bells on top and saw that they worked well with the tree despite the oversised look. I was also going to use a cotton wool for the bottom of the tree however the glue that I bought was not working well with the fabric of my jumper.

After deciding on your centre piece add in some extra stickers and see how they look with your main piece. I really liked the reindeers with their 'flying' appearance so I placed them on either side of the tree. The gingerbread man and candy canes also looked fun so I placed them over the  actual tree as if they were Christmas tree decorations. 

Add gold, white and silver snow flakes for a wintry and festive feel. The silver ribbon also adds an extra notch of extravagance so place over the ends of the sleeves and secure with a pin.

Keep playing around with your shapes and figures to see where else you could add them. Don't be afraid to move around the existing placements as the only way to achieve something brilliant is through trial & error.

When you are happy with your design and layout turn around each peace one at a time, remove the protection on the sticker and place them back to the each designated place. For the jingle bells to stay safe on the jumper I tied them around each christmas tree for extra security.

Try on the jumper once again when all the stickers are stuck on to see if you need a final touch.

I added a santa shaped clip and a reindeer clip from my previous Christmas jumper to fill in the empty parts of the jumper as I was not able to use the cotton wool for a snow effect.

Some extra candy canes also came in handy to fill the bottom of the jumper.

So that's really it guys! Tried on one more time and I was happy with the results. 

Here is the picture of the complete look.

Let me know if you like it! 

And here is a sneak peak to a Christmas jumper I previously made.

Which do you prefer?

Aleks