Stitch up a darling Christmas angel for your tree this season

What you need...

• Fabric: Winter Wonderland, Dashwood Studio; cotton jersey, cream
  Felt: red; self-adhesive, white
  Buttons, small
  Ribbon, red satin
  Fusible webbing
  Toy filling
  Wool, pale yellow
  Sewing machine

instructions

1. Cutting Guide - From cotton jersey: one pair of body and head pieces and one pair of legs.
   For the clothes: from red felt, one jacket and two hat pieces. From patterned fabric: skirt, 54cm x 18cm; two pairs of back bodice and one pair of front bodice.
   For the wings and heart stick white felt to the wrong side of the remaining patterned fabric and cut out the shapes.

2. Make The Doll - 1 Before sewing the pieces together, stay-stitch across the base of the two body pieces, head and top of the legs; this will stop the fabric from stretching and keep the waist nice and trim.
   
   2 Sew the leg pieces together; down one side and up both legs to the opposite side. Clip the curved seam allowance between the legs and turn to the right side. Stuff each one with filling, taking
   care not to distort the shape.
   
   3 Stitch the body and head pieces starting from the base on one side, up around the arms, the neck and head, then down the opposite side. Clip under the arms and up into the curve of the neck on
   both sides. Turn to the right side and stuff. Stitch the body and legs together. Turn in the raw edges along the stay stitching lines, then hand slip stitch the two together.
   
   4 To make the hair, plait together six lengths of yarn to 23cm. Hand stitch in place over the head seam. Add ribbons to finish. Stitch a tiny ‘V’ for the mouth and two blue dashes for eyes.

3. The Clothes - 1 To make the dress, first match the shoulder seams of the front and back bodice together and stitch. Repeat on the remaining front and back pieces. With the right sides of the two bodices facing each other, match the necks and back opening and stitch together. Clip around the neck, turn to the right side and iron flat. Stitch down both side seams through the layer; the neck edge has been neatened, leaving the armholes raw as they will be covered by the jacket.
   
   2 To make the skirt, use webbing to fix a 2.5cm hem along one of the long edges of the fabric rectangle. Make a row of gathering stitches on the opposite long edge. Gather the fabric to fit the base of the bodice by pulling up the threads. Pin the skirt and bodice together, then stitch in place. Match the back seam of the skirt and stitch not quite all the way, leaving 2cm free at the waist of the skirt. Place the dress on the body. Stitch the back neck of the bodice to fasten.
   
   3 To make the jacket, stitch two underarm seams as indicated on the pattern piece. Turn the jacket sleeves to the right side, turn over the curved edge, this will become the collar, then place on the angel. To fasten the jacket, wrap the front edges over each other and stitch a button through both layers.
   
   4 Place two pieces of felt together for the hat and stitch two cuff areas on the hat as indicated on the pattern. Clip into the top of two seams and turn the hat to the other side; tease out the seam allowance at the top of the cuff seams. Stitch around the curve. Turn out the fabric and fold up the cuff, then attach a button for decoration. Stitch the hat in place.
   
   5 Stitch the wings to the back of the jacket. Attach a hanging loop to the top of the heart and place between the hands, then stitch together. Add ribbon for decoration.