Ugly Sweater Crochet Pattern

It’s ugly sweater party season! This year I got this crazy idea in my head to try and crochet an ugly sweater out of tinsel. My kids rolled their eyes (they know I’m crazy sometimes) and said “Go for it.” So, I did . . . .

UGLY SWEATER CROCHET PATTERN

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NOTES: This ugly sweater crochet pattern is meant to be fun! I didn’t want the stress of creating something perfect, but I wanted to share my process with you in case you’d like to attempt your own.

You may have to adjust the pattern as you go to get it to look the way you want it to look. BUT, even frogging it quite a few times I was done the entire thing in only a couple hours.

Finished Sizes: approx. Small/Medium

Garland: approx. 228 ft of tinsel garland
(I used 147 ft of silver & 81 ft of red/silver mix)

Crochet Hooks: No hooks needed. This entire sweater was crocheted with my hands. Please read the notes!

Difficulty: Beginner

For help with abbreviations – see my List of Abbreviations.

Notes:

• Sweater is worked from the bottom up.
• This entire sweater is hand crocheted (use your hands as the hook!)
• As you crochet more your stitches may get tighter. Be aware of this as you make it. (You may need to start with a larger number of chains – which means you’d end up needing more tinsel.)
• This was meant to be a fun project. It didn’t matter to me if it was perfect so I just had a “wing it as I go” attitude about it.
• The entire sweater cost me about $24 (I got my garland at the dollar store). If you wanted to save a bit of money you could skip the first 6-ish rows of the sweater. It would make the back shorter and that would bring it to under $20.
  
  

Ugly Sweater Pattern

With silver, ch 19,
Row 1: Sc in each ch across, turn. (19 sc)

Row 2: Skip 1^st sc, sc in each sc across, turn. (18 sc)  

Row 3: Skip 1^st sc, sc in each sc across, turn. (17 sc)  

Row 4: Sc in each sc across, turn. (17 sc)

Rows 5 – 6: With red, rep row 4.

Rows 7 – 10: With silver, rep row 4.

Rows 11 – 14: With red, rep row 4.

Left Front Panel

Row 15: With silver, sc in 1^st 4 sts, turn (leave rem sts unworked). (4 sc)

Row 16: Sc in each sc across, turn. (4 sc)

Rows 17 – 18: Rep row 16.
Fasten off.

Back Panel

With silver, attach with sl st in first unworked sc of row 14.
Row 15: Sc in same sc and next 8 sc, (leave rem 4 sts unworked), turn. (9 sc)

Row 16: Sc in each sc across, turn. (9 sc)

Rows 17 – 18: Rep row 16.
Fasten off.

Right Panel

With silver, attach with sl st in first unworked sc of row 14,
Row 15: Sc in rem 4 sts, turn. (4 sc)

Row 16: Sc in each sc across, turn. (4 sc)

Rows 17 – 18: Rep row 16.
Fasten off.

Seaming

Matching right and left front panels to back panel, whipstitch shoulder seams together.

Sleeves (see Notes)

These really ended up just an armhole border. My original intent was to add sleeves but I ran out of garland and didn’t have time to go back to the store for more. I had about 18 feet of red left over so I added a border to the armholes instead of entire sleeves. (9 feet around each armhole 1x)

Round 1 (RS): Attach red with sl st at bottom of armhole, sc in each st around, join with sl st to join. Fasten off. Repeat for other armhole.

Feel free to email me pics or tag me in your ugly sweater photos. I would love to see them!