How to Make Ugly Christmas Sweaters

The History of the Melvis Christmas Photos

For those of you know who Davis and I, we thoroughly enjoy embarrassing ourselves on social media with the insane ideas we come up with. Every year around the Holiday season, everyone always asks... "When are you guys doing your Christmas Photos?" And we never let our audience down.

We origniated this annual event in 2011 with the initial idea of wearing ugly Christmas sweaters and going to Sears. The following year we wanted to broaden our options a little more and got more creative.

Every year, we have made it our mission to always set the bar higher. Our goal is to wear different outfits, experiment different concepts, and with different photographers. The only thing that stays the same in these photos is the hairy caterpillar on Davis' upper lip which is a mandatory accessory for these photos.

But the question we get asked the most... Is how do we make our ugly Christmas sweaters???

How to Make an Ugly Sweater

The sweaters that are in the 2012 & 2013 photos are hand made. I went to Value Village and bought us sweaters that fit us nicely and then completely butchered them as best as I could. I then went to Dollarama (which is probably my favourite store in the entire universe) and bought the ugliest Christmas decorations I could find and hot glue gunned them to the outsides of the sweater. As you may have noticed, there are battery packed lights attached to the sweater as well which are tapped on the insides of the sweaters on the sides (back & front). Before I put the decorations on the outside of the sweater, I flipped it inside out and lined the sweater with the lights (cut out little holes for the bulbs to pop through) and then secured it down with tape. I didn't hot glue gun it since it would melt the plastic. Flip is back inside out, and you have the brightest ugly Christmas sweater at the party! From experience, my sweater creations have boosted confidence on my art skills and has provided me with free drinks since it's so damn cool.

2011 Christmas Photos
Photo Cred: Courtesy of Sears... way too expensive, don't go there.

2012 Christmas Photos
Photo Cred: Taylor Cullen - Studio Eleven Photography

2013 Christmas Photos
Photo Cred: Ben Perrin - BTP Photography

2014 Christmas Photos
Photo Cred: Erik Allan

Now that I have spilled the beans on how EASY it is to make these sweaters, I encourage you to top mine and make your own!

-melissa xo