Craft a Golden Tassel Angel Ornament

This elegant Victorian angel ornament is made with a lovely golden tassel and cotton batting wings. Tassels were often used on ornaments during the Victorian Era.

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 Supply List:

• prefabricated porcelain doll head with shoulders
• gold tassel
• short white feathers
• white cotton balls
• two ribbon types, wired edges
• hot glue gun
• white school glue
• tiny embellishments: flowers, gems etc...
• cardboard
• scissors
• white chenille stem
• white or gold glitter

Left, here is a gold tassel. It is so shinny that I can hardly photograph it without a glare! The porcelain head is easy to find in a hobby shop. These kinds of items are popular around Christmas time. The cotton batting wings are not as easy to find. You can make these yourself though.

See how snug and finished the tassel skirted angel looks?
This is because all of the hot glue is hidden inside of the
doll's breast plate. Now all I need to do is wrap the out-
side of her bodice with a gold ribbon.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut one chenille stem in half and wrap each end with a bit of cotton batting; these will be the "hands" of the angel.
2. Cut to fit two narrow pieces of wire edged ribbon to wrap around the chenille stem. The wired edges should be wrapped around the wrist's of the angel. Glue these ribbons into place.
3. Fold the finished chenille stem arms in half and hot glue this stem up inside of the angel's shoulders. See photo right.
4. Now hot glue the tassel up into place just underneath the chenille stem arms. There should be enough room behind the breast plate to accommodate the tassel neatly. Be generous with the hot glue. 
5. Now wrap a gold ribbon around the breast plate all the way to the back of the angel's shoulder plate and clip off so that the ribbon is the size that you need to cover the top half of the angel's torso neatly. Hot glue this ribbon in place.
6. Hot glue the angel's hands to hold whatever embellishments you have collected for her arms.
7. Click and print out the wing pattern above to trace on top of your cardboard.
8. Hot glue white feathers along the lower half of the wings.
9. Unravel a few white cotton balls and glue a layer or two of cotton batting around the upper half of each wing covering the ends of the feathers. Repeat this step several times. Be sure to also wrap the batting around the edges of the wings.
10. End with a final layer of white glue on top of the cotton batting and sprinkle the wings with a bit of white glitter. Let the wings dry.
11. Hot glue the wings to the backside of the angel's breast plate at her shoulders.

Left, cut the chenille stem in half and glue a bit of cotton batting to the tips of the wire stem to create soft stubby hands. Center, the doll's head has a cavity and breast plate. I will fill this cavity with hot glue and push the wire armature inside it before I hot glue the tassel in place. Right, see I have measured the length of the arms to my own liking before wrapping these with a wire edged ribbon. Don't glue the arms into place until you have checked out the length of the stem and wrapped it in an attractive ribbon.

This little porcelain beauty is dressed; all she needs now is a set of cotton batting wings.

More Tassel Skirted Dolls:

• A green and yellow tassel skirted angel
• Corset art doll with tassel skirt
• Marie's tassel skirt
• Victorian Doll Tassel Ornaments

How To Make A Tassel From Scratch.