Components
1 mans tube sock
cissors
needle & thread (can use sewing machine for some parts)
one piece 5”x12” white scrap fabric (petticoat)
one piece 4”x12” color/pattern scrap fabric (dress/robe)
one piece 12×12 brown scrap fabric (hair & teddybear)
two snap fasteners
one third of a silver pipe cleaner
one pair 6” mesh & wire angel wings ($2 online various craft/doll making sites)
one 1lb bag rice (I found them at the dollar store and one bag makes several angels)
I love to recycle! I especially enjoy adding recycled or reused items in my crafts. So when my boyfriend Dave started to clear out all his old, white tube socks that has small holes in the toe I grabbed a pair. At first I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them, so I just hung onto them.
About a month later I was reading one of my crafter magazines and saw a project idea that got me thinking about those socks. The crafter was making small angels from recycled cloth napkins and handkerchiefs. That’s when my light bulb went on, I could use Dave’s old socks. Even though the socks were tubes and the napkins were flat squares I knew I could make it work.
So I took the socks and turned them inside out. First, I cut straight up the middle of the foot section from the toe to a little below the heel. I pined the inside edge that I just cut. This separates the foot portion of the sock into two long tubes that will be the angels legs and feet.
The legs were thin so when I turned the sock back the right way I needed chopsticks to flip the legs back out. At this point I started adding the rice. I filled the legs about ¼ of the way up and sewed a line across the angels leg to define the foot. Then I filled the rest of the angels leg about ½ way with rice and sewed another line to define the knee. After the knees are defined I fill the rest of the angels legs with rice and sew a line across the top of the legs to define the angels hips. This helps the angel sit up straight too.
Now we’ll make the angels body by adding rice into the heel of the sock. This makes a nice round ball that will be the angels body. You want the ball to be the size of a large orange or small grapefruit, depending on the size of your sock and what size you want your finished angel to be. After I fill the angels body with rice I cinch up the neck. Gather the sock tightly above the angels body and sew the neck shut. I did this by weaving my thread in and out of the sock like a belt then pulled it slowly and tightly. I tied 3 knots then proceeded to make four large stitches, two from right to left and knotted, then 2 from front to back and knotted. I don’t really sew much so there is probably an easier way to cinch the neck, if you know of one please let me know!
After forming the body I measure the amout of rice I want to fill the angels head with and mark a line on the sock just above that. I empty out the rice and cut across the sock on the line I just made. Keep the rest of the sock, it will be used to make the angels arms. After this I fill the angels head with rice. This time instead of cinching the closure I used more of a “gift wrap” action to close the head. I puled the sock flat on the front and back and tucked the sides in between, pulled taunt and sewed the front and back together with the sides sandwiched in between. This made a small ridge from left to right across the top of the top back of the angels head. This will be camouflaged by the angels hair and it will keep the angels face flat which makes easier placement of the eyes and smile easier.
Now I take what’s left of the sock and cut a piece at least 2.5”x10” long and flat. From this I sewed along the longest side to make a long tube. I tucked the ends in and hand sewed four lines to form the angels fingers/hand. Then I filled the tube 75% of the way with rice and proceeded to sew the other end closed in the same manner. I divide the rice evenly on each arm and take the middle with no rice and wrap it around the back of the angels neck. I placed the center of the wings on the back of the arms and I sewed the wings and arms to the neck.
Now it’s time to decorate and dress our angel. I used pinking shears to cut each of the fabric strips that I was using to save time from having to hem them (remember I don’t sew much). Layer the two pieces of fabric so the petticoat can peak out from under the robe. Take one pair of the snaps and sew one to the top corner of the robe. After you’ve tied off the snap you can weave your thread in and out of the fabric like a belt to cinch the dress tight around the dolls neck. Measure to make sure the robe isn’t too loose or too tight then knot the thread twice before adding the other side of the snap. Double check to make sure you have the snap attached to the correct side of the fabric! (it was late when I was finishing and I learned this lesson the hard way hehe).
I took some brown scrap fabric that I had and cut a 5” by 3” out with my pinking shears. I folded the fabric in half then pulled one side back to off set the ends. I pined the hair and sewed a line along the back to hold it off set. Then I took my pinking shears and cut small strips into the hair from the raw edge to just before the seam I sewed. Then I took the portion of pipe cleaner and made a circle for the halo on one end then bent a ‘foot’ on the other to tuck under the hair. To attach the hair I used a line of hot glue just over the ridge where I sewed the angels head closed. I sewed two 4mm seed beads on her face for eyes and painted a big red smile with fabric paint.
On the leftover brown fabric I penciled a teddy bead body then cut it out. I hand sew it closed and added a little batting to make it dimensional. I drew eyes, noes and mouth on it’s face with fabric paint. Now our angel has an doll.
Take the second snap fastener and sew it onto the palms of the angels hands. This does double duty as it keeps the angels hands together for prayer and to hug her doll.
Now just put your angels robe on, place her doll in her arms and your done!
After this first one I created for my mom I made other dresses and accessories to match various seasons through out the year!
It’s a pretty simple project and it was a lot of fun to make. I’d love to hear from you if you’ve made a sock angel! Don’t forget to send a picture of your angel too!
Have fun making your angel!
