A Snow Angel Make Over

Ok, so I am fooling a bit with this title. It should read Angel Tree Topper Re-do, but I will explain the snow part in a few paragraphs or eight, judging by my ability to write in excess.

This angel has sat upon the Pratt Family Christmas tree back when there were just two Pratts. It may have even been prior to that when there was a Pratt and Mero and pre-Wedding. So, been married almost 14 years so she may be celebrating her Sweet 16!

So long ago it was a bit of a puzzle & amusing to take her apart.

So, this year at Christmas I pulled out this sorry old angel and set her aside. My fearless helper Lexi questioned why and I named off things like, her dress is stained from sap, she is dusty, etc.

Lexi said, we'll we can't throw her out with that tone of injustice one might have if you have seen this angel on your tree for 11 years.

So, we used her again for the year and I added her to my list to do in 2012. See there she is from FAAAAAAARRRRRR away where you can't see the tree sap stained skirt or dust. BUT hey, I know she she looks like up close and it isn't pretty.

And, here is a close up. See the stains from years of tree sap? And you can't see the dust from this angle, trust me it's there.

So, step one was to get a plan. I knew I wanted a much fuller skirt since it always bugged me I could see through the material I used ages ago. 

I did LOVE the vintage lace I used along the bottom and wanted to keep it.

So, after much pondering I came up with taking her apart a bit, washing the skirt with goo gone and adding a lace doily around the bottom. 

A trip to Ebay and I scored a very elaborate lace doily for the shirt. 

I even measured and figured my problems were solved. 

They were not. When I played around with the doily, I had this HUGE gap between the actual dress and the  doily that I now hated.

I decided to go with Plan B. 

I added two vintage handkerchiefs in a layer and thought it made me feel slightly better. Then I carefully cut out the center in what I thought was a circle. If you try this at home, maybe try tracing one?

Next it was time to rescue my angel from the bathroom where she was drying. 

NO, I have no clue why she's sideways since I rotated the photo and it appears right before I import into blogger. 

I will say before I got to the careful washing step and chipping sap off her dress, I clipped her wings and took a good gander on how I assembled her many years ago. 

oh my! I used a shoulder pad I had clipped out a shirt and found two round beads I had sown on for.....um....a realistic um, bosom. 

So, did a quick little whip stitch around the new skirt topper and stood back to admire it. Still didn't like it. I still had too much of a gap. I decided to fill that gap with some gauze that was slightly longer. I used the rolled edges as a seam and that made me feel much better. 

Some hot gluing and finally, I was happy with my results. SUPER HAPPY!!!

And here she is all completed having a glamour shot on my back deck strategically placed on a recent find from the thrift store that was handy in preventing her from getting too wet from some fresh snow.  

See the snow flakes on the roses and star?  That is because in my haste to grab my camera as I rushed out the door to take this photo she may have fallen face first in the snow.

I thought for sure she was a goner. She is porcelain after all. 

Nope, guess she just wanted to make a quick snow angel before her photo!

PHEW!

And, what do I do with a newly completed tree topper that has 11 months to wait before seeing a Christmas tree again?

Why, stick her in the middle of some Valentine's Day stuff so I can enjoy her for a bit before putting her away. 

I think she's earned it!