Sweater Weather Ornaments: A DIY for Cozy Christmas Decor

Prepare The Hoops

You can leave the hoops in their natural bamboo color, or stain them for a darker, vintage look. I personally prefer a darker tone, but the choice is yours. If you’re hesitant about staining, I recommend using Varathane Less Mess stain.

I actually don’t like working with stain but I found this Varathane Less Mess stain. It comes in a bottle with a sponge tip applicator and it was a game changer for me when doing craft projects. It’s much easier to work with and doesn’t have a strong odor.

Disassemble the hoops and apply the stain. Wipe away any excess stain to achieve an aged look.

Assemble the Ornaments:

Using fabric shears, cut squares of sweater fabric that are slightly larger than the embroidery hoops. Select sections of the sweater with the most appealing patterns to enhance the design of your ornaments.

Start by placing the bottom hoop piece on a flat surface. Add the sweater fabric, then top it with the top hoop piece. Tighten the hoop to stretch the fabric and secure it in place.

Flip the ornament over and trim off the excess material with fabric shears. Get as close to the bamboo hoop as you can.

Add Decorative Touches

Now the fun part, it’s time to personalize this ornament to fit with my Christmas decorating style.

from nature:

You can decorate these ornaments in so many different ways! I’m going for a natural, rustic look, so I’ll be adding delicate pink flowers, mini pinecones, a bit of greenery, and a russet velvet ribbon.

Other ideas are using just greenery, adding small jingle bells, buttons, or even a small sprig of red berries.

Using hot glue, I secured small sprigs of dried pink flowers to the ornament. Then, I added a mini pinecone to the center and a tiny sprig of greenery on each side. (I pulled small pieces from a larger greenery pick.)

Once the glue was set I tied a simple bow out of frayed velvet ribbon at the top of the sweater ornament.

stamped tag

For an extra special touch (completely optional), I stamped pieces of ribbon with seasonal messages like “Joy,” “Peace,” and “Love.” I then used hot glue to attach the ribbons to a few of the ornaments.