When I made my Christmas wreaths I mentioned that I was making angels and several people asked me to show how. I managed to give all the good ones away, but I’ll use these for the tutorial even though they are slightly dodgy.
I found the pattern in a box of my Mum’s stuff and I modified it slightly based on some that I saw in a shop in New York.
Here are the components:
I have some wool felt – both scraps of red and some that I made myself. I found a bag of balls in Mum’s stash, which are perfect for heads, and also some beads, sequins and stars. I have a bit of the thread left over from the wreath, some pipe cleaners (cut in half) and a few bells of different sizes.
The “skirt is just a simple shape, as are the wings. I added the collar with the points which I copied from the one I saw, and the crown is just a semi circle at the back and a crescent shape for the front, made roughly to fit the head.
Before assembling I decorate the skirt, collar, wings and the front of the crown.
The back of the skirt is sewn together and the wings added.
The front showing the randomness of my decoration. I’m sure others will have much more orderly decorative bits.
I fold one of the pipe cleaners in half and push it into a hole I make in the head with an awl.
If I want them with legs then just fold another pipe cleaner into the first. If you don’t want legs, then add something with a bit of weight like a large bead or a bell. You need to stop the head being pulled up out of the skirt.
You can also make the hole go the whole way through the head and fold the pipe cleaner over the top like this one. This is more secure.
Once the head is on, sew a running thread through the collar and attach it to the top of the skirt.
Sew the two parts of the crown together. The crescent shape goes to the front – I have put a couple on backwards! Put a hanging loop through the top and secure it. Then glue the crown to the head, and use a pencil to draw a face on. I used a red pencil for the cheeks, and a regular pencil for the eyes and mouth, but feel free to go mad here!
This is a finished one from felt I made myself (left over from the wreath) with the crown on backwards. It kind of works too although this is not my finest work!
I’ve made quite a few of these and they make lovely gifts. I have several more cut out, and they are good to make in front of the television as they are completely hand sewn. You can make them in any size, although really small ones would be a real fiddle, but big ones would look nice on a big tree or even strung on a wire.