Ugly Christmas Sweater Shirt

Cricut invited me to participate in their Pretty/Ugly Sweater Showcase. Thank you to Cricut for providing me with the iron-on for this project. This post contains affiliate links.

Bloggers were challenged to create the prettiest or ugliest holiday sweater. I love using my Cricut Explore to create shirts. The iron-on is so easy to use and the glitter iron-on is amazing! It is so sparkly and fun. 

Supplies needed:

• Cricut Explore™
• Green Glitter Iron-on
• Red Glitter Iron-on
• White Glitter Iron-on
• Black Iron-on
• Long sleeve t-shirt
• Iron and ironing board

I love cats, so I knew I wanted to incorporate a kitty on my sweater. And since I don’t really like sweaters (I am allergic to wool and even the cotton ones tend to make me itchy), I thought it would be fun to create an ugly sweater pattern on a long sleeve t-shirt. I picked up an inexpensive gray t-shirt at Walmart. 

I got to work in Cricut Design Space. I created rows of trees and snowflakes. I added a fluffy kitty with a Santa hat and the words, “Merry Christmas”. I then added some paw prints and a heart. I was trying to make my sweater ugly, but I actually think it turned out pretty cute!

Design Space file: Ugly Christmas Sweater Shirt

When it is time to cut your iron-on vinyl, you want to be sure to select ‘mirror image’. This will flip your image so that when you iron it on to your shirt, it will not be backwards and will look exactly how you designed it. This is especially important when working with fonts and words.

I chose to cut everything out in glitter iron-on except for the cat’s black tail, nose, and the paw prints. The glitter makes the shirt a lot more festive for the holidays!

Once you have everything cut out, you have to weed the iron-on material that is not part of your design off the liner. Since all the patterns cut out on one sheet, I separate the different parts of the design by cutting the vinyl apart. So for example, with the black, I had two sets of paw prints, a nose and a tail. This makes it easier when it comes time to iron the design on.

I laid out the design on my shirt before I started ironing to be sure everything was going to fit as I wanted it. If you are layering iron-on material, you have to do one at a time.

Be sure to follow the instructions for ironing. For the glitter iron-on, you use medium pressure on the hottest setting (cotton/linen) for 25 – 30 seconds. Then, you flip the shirt over and iron for the same amount of time from the back. For the design you are layering you only need to iron the first layer for 15 to 20 seconds.

I used the liner piece that I peeled off the cat to iron-on all the pieces of the Santa hat. It says on the package not to layer glitter iron-on but so far I haven’t had any problems with it sticking. 

Ready to make your own pretty or ugly sweater? Cricut is having a contest from now until December 14th. You simply submit your photo and tell Cricut a little about your sweater. The winners will be chosen by the most honest of judges – elementary aged school children. The prizes will vary, including a Cricut of your own! 

Enter Cricut’s “Pretty Ugly” Sweater contest

Ready to purchase a Cricut of your own? Click the image below to start shopping! 

So do you think my shirt turned out Pretty or Ugly? Tell me in the comments.