The holidays are upon us but that doesn’t mean that fashion or inspiration stops, the show must go on even during Christmas and so does the competition! The good news is I made it to round 4 in the ABC Family’s Jane By Design Style Challenge!  This task posed a bit more of a challenge – it included a very ugly Christmas sweater!  Here was the task straight from Gray herself:

“Look inside your trunk and take out the holiday sweater.  You see something for your grandmother.  Now look again.  What do you see now?  You must use every ounce of creativity you have to turn the holiday sweater into something special.  Something spectacular.  I don’t care if you use scissors or glue, your fat jeans or a slice of stale fruitcake.  Turn that sweater into something fresh & exciting that could be the next big trend for Holiday 2012.”

Something you may not know about me is that I love to go antiquing and redo old furniture and turn it into a very shabby chic updated piece!  So I approached this challenge the exact same way. First, I sprayed glitter on the front of the sweater for inspiration. Sounds silly, but I love glitter.  Second, I laid the sweater vest on the ground and began playing with the fabric.  Manipulating the fabric turning it inside out looking for inspiration.  Thirdly, I actually put the sweater on and then I put it on backward.  And that it when it hit me! I was going to turn this holiday sweater vest into a trendy dressy wrap shirt!

“Holiday Sweaters” are very iconic so I wanted to play up this piece while still keeping the traditional feel.  I have been seeing all kinds of holiday patterns pop up here and there in the stores at the mall so I definitely wanted to keep some of the holiday design.  I went ahead and removed the beading that was all over the sweater.  I removed one sleeve and made it into a very fitted one shoulder shirt.  The back is an open concept with the buttons wrapping down the back of the body at an angle.  We can also see the holiday pattern (I choose the prettier design on the shirt to highlight) but I updated the stitching with glitter and added festive rhinestones to give it a really fun and fresh look!  In the front I weaved in a holiday ribbon to play on the wrap shirt/present feel!  I love this sweater shirt! It would look really cute with a pair of tuxedo pants and some heels!

Have you ever taken something old or something you don’t like and turned it into something amazing? I would love to hear about it over on the Jane By Design Facebook Wall HERE.  Don’t forget to mention that Chip and Co. sent you!

Don’t forget to watch another sneak peak of the all new show Jane By Design starting soon!

Related articles

• ABC Family’s Jane By Design Style Challenge #1 (delightfullydisney.com)
• ABC Family’s Jane By Design Style Challenge – Task 2 (chipandco.com)

Check out this special offer:
Dooney and Bourke Exclusively for Disney Parks Now Available at DisneyStore.com!

Check out the latest deals and offers from:

About Jackie

Jackie Hutnik has written 30 post on Chip and Co..

Jackie is a fun loving wife, mother and Disney Blogger! She enjoys making each trip enjoyable by sharing tips and idea's on how to have the best Walt Disney World vacation possible.

• View all posts by Jackie →
• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook