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Why go out and buy Christmas decorations to hang on your tree when – with a little time and patience – you can turn a few scraps and cheap natural materials into your own adorable little Christmas Tree Angel.
Christmas Tree Angel - Project Overview
If you have a couple of hours to spare, a little red and white fabric and some enthusiasm, you are well on your way to creating your Christmas Tree Angel. Follow the step by step instructions below and get ready to welcome a new addition to your family of Christmas tree ornaments that will be loved year after year.
Part of the magic of Christmas is in the traditions handed down over the generations and handmade decorations really help to preserve those. I think they are just so much more fun than the mass produced decorations you can buy in the shops?
Of course, you can enjoy making these angels all on your own, but if you have children who love crafting, then more hands make light work – and hopefully some happy memories in the process too.
Part of the fun of making dolls/angels is that because they are all handmade, each acquires her own personality as she is created. You never quite know what the end result will be – it all depends on how the making process goes, what shape her face takes, your fabric choice and how her hat turns out. What is for sure though is that each will be unique, with her own personality. It’s rather like raising a family?!
Christmas Tree Angel - What You Will Need
- Iron and Ironing Board
- 18 cm x 7.5 cm Red & White Cotton Fabric - for her dress
- 2 pieces 5 cm x 5 cm Red & White Cotton Fabric - for her arms
- 30cm of 1cm depth lace/trim
- 25 mm wooden bead with 2 holes - for her head
- 2 x 12mm wooden bead with 2 holes - for her feet
- 2 x 10mm wooden bead with 2 holes - for her hands
- A ball of twine
- Tacky Glue
- Co-ordinating cotton thread
- 20 cm length of narrow ribbon
- A scrap of white felt
- Face kit - Black Ink, Embossing Tool, Blusher and Brush, Red Gel Pen.
- OR use: Black/red biro for eyes/mouth and a red crayon for cheeks
- Oddments of Red/White wool for her hat
- Pair of 2mm knitting pins
- Wide eyed needle (s)
- 2 x 5mm metal washers - to make the pom pom for her hat
- Haemostats - Optional, but very useful!
- Sewing Machine - Optional (you can hand sew if you have time)
- An embellishment for her dress/hat - Optional - but such fun?!
Christmas Tree Angel - Step by Step Guide
Time needed: 2-3 hours
I made six angels in a day. Well – I knitted their hats quite late into the evening, so I would say 2 -3 hours would be enough to make one angel – depending on how quick a knitter you are. I am very SLOW!
Christmas Tree angel - Dress and Arms
- Make yourself a cardboard template pattern and use it to cut your chosen fabric to the right size.
- Press up 5mm on the top and bottom long edge of the skirt.
- Attach lace trim to the long bottom edge of the skirt.
- Sew the top hem of the skirt leaving enough gap to thread cotton through the top to gather it later on.
- Sew up the back seam, leaving a small gap at the top so that you can thread a double length of cotton through the top to gather the neck of the dress.
- Press up 5mm on the edge of each arm
- Sew the arm seam (sewing over the turned up ends to secure them) and turn inside out.
- Glue a 10mm bead inside the end of each arm, making sure that the fabric covers the holes. You want to leave enough of the bead showing to make it look like a real hand.
- Leave the arms to dry while you work on the rest of your angel.
Christmas Tree Angel - Head and Legs
- Take your 25mm wooden bead and draw on your angel’s face.
- Be sure to look for the best part of the face to use – without any wood markings to spoil her good looks!
- Use your embossing tool to make an indent where you want the eyes to be – the ink takes better if there is an indent for it to fall into.
- Use a small amount of black ink to dot the eyes into place.
- Use a red gel pen/red biro make her smile appear.
- Last – and best – give her cheeks a rosy glow with either versa colour blush or simply a red pencil crayon, used sideways on.
- Knot your ribbon and thread a 26cm length of twine through it to form your angel’s legs.
- Thread the ribbon through the head and pull up the knot to secure it neatly hidden from view inside her head.
- Push the legs through the hole in the top of the dress and thread the drawstring cotton up through the bead. Don’t worry – it will be covered by her hair shortly.
- Glue the dress into place on the bottom of your angel’s head and leave her to dry.
- Thread 2 x 12mm beads onto the legs and knot the twine beneath them to secure.
- Put a small dab of glue inside the bead and pull the knot inside so it sits flat on the bottom of her foot. Leave to dry and trim off any excess when it is dry.
- Cut a pair of wings from white felt.
- Cut 6 x 18cm lengths of twine, to form the front of your angel’s hairstyle.
- Cut 24 x 10 cm lengths of twine to form the back of her hair.
Christmas Tree Angel - Finishing Touches
- Fold the top of her arms in half and sew them onto your angel’s shoulders, encasing the raw edge as you sew.
- Sew a small piece of lace around her neck, overlapping the raw edges at the centre back.
- Take the 6 strands of twine for the front of her hairstyle. Fold them in half and glue to the centre of her head, in front of the ribbon loop.
- Glue 16 strands of twine around the back of her head and add another 8 on top, to give her hair a reasonable thickness.
- Trim the twine to give the length of hair you want.
- Glue your wings to the back of your angel, underneath her hair.
- Now – all she needs is a woolly hat to keep her ears (?!) nice and cosy.
Christmas Tree Angel - Pom Pom Hat
- Using 2mm needles and 4 ply wool, cast on 23 stitches.
- Work 16 rows.
- Leave a 15 cm tail and cut your wool from the ball.
- Thread a needle with the tail end and pass it through all the stitches on the needle then pull them tight to gather them all up and fasten off securely with a few stitches that will be hidden by your pom pom later.
- Use the tail thread to sew up the back seam of the hat, using mattress stitch.
- Fasten off any loose ends neatly inside the hat and trim them off.
- Take a long length of wool – or use a length of both red and white if you like – and thread it through a large eyed needle.
- Take two 5mm metal washer and wind your wool all around them, passing the needle back and forth through the hole in the middle.
- When you have a fat enough pom pom for your angel’s liking, cut the wool and pass a double length of cotton around the centre of the pom pom, between the washers.
- Tie it securely in place and knot several times. Use the same thread to attach the pom pom securely to the hat.
- Now, all you need to do is thread the ribbon through the needle and pass that through the top of the hat.
- Run a few stitches around the brim of the hat to attach it securely to your angel’s head.
- Optional – but always the really fun bit for me – put a stamp on your angel’s unique personality by your choice of embellishment for her hat. Some like stars, some like hearts. What is you angel’s heart’s desire for her woolly hat?
Have fun with making different hats to suit your angel’s unique personality. There are a few options below, but there are really no rules here – so just have some fun with it!
Your finished hat should measure 8cm x 3cm.
Hat Option 1
- Row 1 – Knit (Red)
- Row 2 – Knit (Red)
- Row 3 – Knit (Red)
- Row 4 – Purl 1 (White) and 1 (Red)
- Row 5 – Knit (Red)
- Rows 6 – 16 – Stocking stitch (Red).
Hat Option 2
- Row 1 – Knit (White)
- Row 2 – Knit (White)
- Row 3 – Knit (White)
- Row 4 – Purl (White)
- Row 5 – Knit (White)
- Row 6 – Purl (Red)
- Row 7 – Knit (Red)
- Rows 8 – 16 – Stocking stitch – Alternate 2 rows White, 2 rows Red.
Hat Option 3
- Row 1 – Rib (White)
- Row 2 – Rib (White)
- Row 3 – Rib (White)
- Row 4 – Rib (White)
- Row 5 – Knit (White)
- Row 6 – Purl (White)
- Row 7 – Knit (Red)
- Row 8 – Purl (Red)
- Rows 9 – 16 – Stocking stitch (White)
Heart Up-Cycling!
Everything I create makes good use of up-cycled materials. For this project, I used:
- Donated fabric scraps – thanks again Michelle!
- Ribbons re-cycled from donated clothes. Never throw away all those irritating bits of ribbon that stores use to keep clothes straight on hangers and which always seem to stick out when you wear them (at least they do for me anyway!) unless you cut them off.
- Donated sequins/embellishments and lace.
- Wool left over from other projects that would otherwise go to waste. You only need a really tiny amount of wool for an angel’s hat.
Tips and Tricks
- A sewing machine is useful to speed up the making process, but not essential. You can easily hand sew your Christmas Tree Angel – it will just take you a bit longer.
- Haemostats are useful for turning the arms inside out quickly – but again, not essential.
- I always keep a supply of cocktail sticks and cotton buds handy. They are so useful for applying glue neatly and pushing any stubborn bits into exactly the place you want them to be.
- A cocktail is the perfect tool to apply the eye ink with.
- Make sure her legs are the same length – it is easy to get one longer than the other! If you do find that problem, you can usually pull very gently on the shorter leg to adjust it to exactly the right length.
- Don’t leave it until the end to put your angel’s face on! This is one of the most difficult bits and you don’t want to ruin all your hard work by leaving it until the end and being disappointed with it.
- Remember – you have a couple of goes to get it right – you can always turn the bead around and cover your first go with hair if you are not completely happy with it!
- I find it helpful to hold the head with a cocktail stick through the middle and push it into some cardboard as I make the face – it helps to keep it steady as you work.
- Make sure your angel’s dress is in the right place before you glue it onto her head – you want the seam centre back. Don’t let it twist towards the front as you glue.
- It is really useful to have something to wind the hair around to make sure you get all the strands the same length and speed up the process. I used the thread inset from the top of my sewing machine cabinet which turned out to be just the perfect size!
- Last – but definitely not least – be sure to allow enough time for all the bits that need to dry to be really dry before you work with them. Hi-tack glue does dry quickly – but not immediately, so you do need a little bit of patience.
Happiness is a Satisfied Customer
“Beautiful Christmas angels – how delightful they are. I am so glad I ordered these. So very pretty and really high quality. Thank you.”
Glynis – October 2021
Request Printable PDF Instructions
A Printable PDF Instruction Sheet for making your own host of Christmas Angels is available.
Please contact me to request a downloadable PDF file (Subscribers only).
I am making a host of Christmas Tree Angels to sell to raise funds for Birmingham St. Mary’s Hospice. I will be selling them locally and via my Etsy shop. Buying an angel is of course an easy way to help, but if you want to be more “hands on” you can:
- Buy a kit to make an angel yourself. Contact me for further details.
- Donate fabric/lace/ribbons/embellishments.
- Knit hats – please contact me if you want to help.
- Join an angel making workshop. If you are local to Birmingham, click on “How can you Help” to see details of current workshops.
- Not local to Birmingham? Make some angels and donate them to a charity shop near you. Is there a better way to share the Christmas spirit?
Margot you are so clever and everything you do is amazing. You make is look so easy too even for someone like me who isn’t particularly good at making things. I am definitely going to start looking for bits and pieces to keep to make some of your wonderful ideas
Thank you! I am planning to add a short video when I can find enough time to put it together to make it a bit easier to follow the instructions.