From Ugly to Uglier!

What's a gal to do when she has an ugly sweater party to attend, and doesn't want to wear the same sweater as last year?   

I love wearing costumes and ugly Christmas sweaters are no exception. This year we had two different "Ugly Sweater Parties" to attend. Not wanting to wear the same sweater to both parties, I decided to do a bit of a "make-uglier" to a thrift store find. The vest I found had good "bones," the wool fabric and  colors worked for Christmas and I thought I could carry through the eclectic button look with my design . Plus there was a lot of empty space to create on. 

Grabbing some embroidery floss, I went to work. I decided my theme would be "duck the halls" (bah-dum-dum-ching!) I started by adding the wording to the right side of the vest. 

I decided to embroider "free hand" because the houndstooth provided guidelines in a sense for me to follow. I simply counted checks to get my lettering right.

I then concentrated on the tree. I wanted my little duck friend to help decorate the tree. Cutting out three triangles of wool felt, I  layered them, appliquéing them with a simple basic stitch to hold in place. I then added the trimmings. For garland, I used an upholstery trim, I loved the gold and felt the loops on the trim gave it more of a "garland-y" feel. 

To continue on with the button theme, the sweater already had going for it, I grabbed some buttons from my vintage button jar, to add as ornaments. The star on top was a purchase from "Dress it up." To finish it off, I took apart, a blinking light necklace. Starting at one end I tacked it down towards the bottom, then looping around by the ducks mouth, I continued on over the tree, stitching it into place, to hide the battery pack, I cut a hole into the wool near the top of the tree, stitching it into place. To give the battery pack some extra support I used a safety pin. By pinning it vs. stitching the battery pack, it allows me easier "spinning"  to untwist the casing when it comes time to change the batteries. 

My sis-in-law, helped me put my hair up into a french twist that I then adorned with curly-q's of ribbon tied to bobby pins. (The up-do was more for the fact I was going to be serving food and didn't want my long hair to cause problems. I added the ribbon to make it more festive.) I finished off the look with a holly covered turtle neck. After all you want to "Duck the Halls" with "arms of holly" ;)  (I quack myself up sometimes! ) ...Merry Christmas!