Holiday Sweater Crafts, Vintage Style

The Ugly Sweater party officially peaked when mass retailers started making new ugly sweaters. The whole point of the ugly sweater party was that you had to actively search for a kitschy sweater, starting with your parent’s closet or at a vintage store.  There was a serendipity to the whole thing. It was a testament to fashion irony at its finest. Like so many good things, it was ruined by commercialization. Once you could wander into a big box and buy a sweater that was horrifying by design, the irony evaporated. And with that…the Ugly Sweater phenomenon was officially toast. Stick a fork in it and call it done.

So now that we’re not going to be busy bedazzling sweaters in horrifying ways, we need a new sweater distraction for the holiday season. Not all holiday sweater crafts need to involve irony. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up some easy holiday decor made with sweaters that all have cool vintage style.

Sweater wine bag

Cheryl of Thats What Che Says adds homemade warmth to a gift bottle of wine with her wine bag made from a sweater sleeve. It doesn’t take a lot of sewing to make this stylish accent that can be used year after year by the recipient. Who says a wine bottle shouldn’t be well dressed?

Sweater mittens

Holiday sweater crafts that can also be gifts is a double win. Even better, you can use the sleeves of the sweater to make wine bags and the body of the sweater to make these cool mittens with the instructions from Helen at HelloSewing.

Warm wooly blanket

Imagine being snug in your bed, having just settle down for a long winter’s rest…under this marvelously textured and warm blanket pieced from sweaters. Directions from Freshly Found are clear and easy to follow, but this does take a certain amount of sewing skill and yes, you may have to do some math.

Thoughts on Materials for your Vintage Sweater Crafts

We love wool but we hate moths. A moth infestation usually wanders in with an older piece and, we stress this, not always a wool one. Moths are jerks and will eat any natural fiber. So that’s why we recommend using acrylic sweaters for most projects. Well washed acrylic sweaters. Of course that won’t work for felting, but it’s going in the washer so the moths sloshed right on out.

Also, choose a sweater knit with a smaller yarn and hence smaller stitches rather than big chunky ones. Less raveling with a smaller knit, or so we think.