Angel Christmas Tree Topper Sewing Pattern

Free Sewing Pattern for a Waldorf Doll Angel Christmas Tree topper!

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Looking for something special to place on the top of your family’s Christmas tree year after year?

Here’s a free sewing pattern for a Waldorf doll Angel tree topper!

Print your pattern at the bottom of the page, then follow my step by step tutorial below!

Happy sewing!

Supplies Needed:

Cotton Interlock Fabric for the body
Wool to fill your doll
Cotton woven fabric for the clothes
White felt for the wings
White pipe cleaner for the halo
Yarn or wool locks for the hair
Ribbon (or fabric) for the tie
Sewing Machine and a hand sewing needle/thread
Unwaxed Dental floss
Gauze tubing
Dark colored thread to embroider the eyes
Lace to trim the dress with

Step 1: Do NOT cut out your pattern pieces!

Once you templates cut out — do NOT cut out your fabric quite yet!

Instead of cutting out your pattern pieces, you will be sewing right over your traced lines.

Use your cotton interlock fabric for your angel’s body and head.

The stretchy part of your fabric should stretch WIDER not taller. The templates have the direction of the stretch marked.

Fold your cotton interlock fabric in half, and trace all of your templates onto the two layers of fabric.

Trace your angel’s head on the fold of the fabric!

Then, sew through your two layers of fabric right on your traced lines. Keep the edges open as marked on your templates!

After you sew, cut out your doll pieces, leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance around each piece as you cut it out.

Turn your pieces right side out.

Lightly stuff the body and arms of the doll with wool and set aside. (Don’t stuff the head!)

(Traditionally, Waldorf dolls are stuffed very firmly with wool. With this tree topper, you don’t want to stuff TOO firmly with wool, otherwise your tree may be weighed down when attaching your angel!)

Step 2: Create your angel’s inner head

In order for your angel to have a nicely shaped head, you will need to create an inner head and neck to place inside your doll.

Take some gauze inner head tubing. Knot it at one end, and turn it inside out so that the knot is on the inside of the tubing.

Stuff the tubing with wool, testing the size so that it fits nicely in your cotton interlock fabric head piece you have sewn.

The head should be firm, but not as firm as a traditional Waldorf doll’s head. You don’t want a decoration on the top of your Christmas tree to be so heavy that it weighs your tree down!

Tie off your head tightly with some unwaxed dental floss.

Lightly stuff a small inner neck, testing to see how well it fits in the bottom of the cotton interlock fabric head piece of your doll.

The the neck off tightly with unwaxed dental floss, too.

Cut off any excessive tubular gauze.

Next, we’ll create the eyeline on the head of your doll. To do this, you will take some unwaxed dental floss and tie it tightly in the middle of the head. Take a hand sewing needle and thread and sew the tied floss into place.

Use a hand sewing needle and thread to pull up some wool tightly right under the eyeline to create a nose.

Place your doll’s inner head inside the cotton interlock fabric head piece.

Sew the hole at the top of the head closed, avoiding any wrinkles on the face.

(the seam on the doll’s head should be on the BACK of your doll’s head)

Step 3: Finish assembling your doll

Using a ladder stitch, place the head into your doll’s body and sew around. Make sure you fold down the raw edges around the neck inside the body to hem them!

Close the arms, concealing the raw edges of the arms inside of the arms, and sew them at the shoulders of the doll.

Sew some hair onto your doll. I used wool locks for this doll and sewed them directly onto the doll’s head WITHOUT crocheting a cap first as is often done with Waldorf dolls.

You can also use yarn hair for this doll. I have several other tutorials that include making doll hair on my blog. If you’re interested in a more in depth hair tutorial, you can view these posts. Some good hair tutorials are included on my Tiny Rag Doll Family post, and I also have a more traditional yarn-hair Waldorf weft tutorial here. If you want to know more about how I sewed wool locks for this doll’s hair, I have a tutorial on this here.

After you have sewn hair onto your doll, use some dark colored thread and a hand sewing needle to embroider eyes onto your doll.

Lastly, bend a pipe cleaner into the shape of a halo, with a support on the back. Use a needle and thread to sew the halo onto the back of the angel’s head.

Add any extra embellishments you’d like to your doll. (I added a sparkly headband to mine)

Step 4: Sewing the dress

The dress for this doll is quite easy to sew.

Simply trace your template on the fold of the fabric, and cut it out. Do this twice. (Two pieces)

Put the dress right sides together, and sew at the seams, as seen in the photo.

Hem the neckline, arms, and bottom of the dress. Adjust as needed. I liked keeping the dress on my doll longer/larger. This gave the angel a falsified look of being a bit larger than the doll, which in turn keeps the doll a lighter weight on my tree, while still looking like a full-size angel decoration.

Cut out two pieces of felt for the wings. Use a blanket stitch to sew around. Sew the wings to the back of the dress.

Use a long ribbon (or sew one with fabric) and sew it to the front of the dress. The ribbon is used to tie the doll to the top of the tree.

Add any extra embellishments — I attached some lace to the bottom of my angel’s dress.

How to attach to your tree

To attach this angel to your tree, simply use the ribbon on the dress to tie it on.

The ribbon allows the angel to be firmly attached to the top of the tree.

If you have a live tree, it also makes it so you don’t have to cut off any branches at the tippy top of your tree to fit the angel on if you’d prefer not to!