Monday, November 27th
When I was a little girl, my Aunt Helen got super into puffy painting clothes for a bit. One Christmas, she made me a couple of sweatshirts, one of which was three little kittens who lost their mittens and the other was a Christmas light sweatshirt. I wore those sweatshirts until they no longer fit and loved them so much. I was inspired to make a 2017 version and I'm pretty happy with the results. Let me show you how I made it so that you can make your own this season!
Budget: $
Skill level: Beginner
Items needed:
Black shirt or sweater.
Yarn or thread.
Sewing Needle
Sharp scissors
Sharp scissors
First, you will need to paint your "light string" using the green puff paint. I laid actual string on the shirt where I wanted my design to fall and to make a more "string like" effect for me to trace. I then used the green puff paint to trace around the lines of the string and removed the string as I went.
While the paint dries (it takes about 4 hours), you will want to make your pom poms for the "lights" using your string. To make the pom poms, pick the colors of string you will want your "lights" to be.
First you will want to cut a small piece of string (about 3 inches long) to be used later.
Then you are going to take your string and start wrapping it around your fingers (the more fingers you use, the larger the poms will be), so I am only using my middle and index fingers. Please note, that you will want to leave a small gap between your fingers as you wrap. I wrapped the string around my two fingers 35 times.
Once you have wrapped the string 35 times, you will want to take the small piece of cut string from step one and place between your two fingers as shown below:
Now pull the small piece of string around and back through your fingers.
Next tie the small string into a knot as shown and remove from fingers.
Now turn it over and tie it two more times to make sure it's nice and secure.
Take your sharp scissors and cut through both sides and then you will have a pom pom.
Finally, you will finish off your pom pom but trimming it down to size and then fluffing into shape.
Now that you've got that down, you will repeat twice in each color that you have chosen.
Once the puff paint was dry, I laid out my pom poms to see where I wanted them to hang out.
Thread your needle with the corresponding color of the pom and sew the poms onto your shirt using a simple stitch and voila, you have your very own Christmas light sweater. Not only was it easy, it was also really fun to make. Keep for yourself or give as a gift.
You will want to hand wash this garment inside out to keep the paint and poms in tact for many Christmas' to come. Enjoy!
If you make one, please post and tag me so I can see the results. Happy Holidays! XOXO Kym
