Top your tree with Paloma Rocha’s kawaii-inspired fairy doll – or add her to a shelf alongside your kitsch collectables
HOW TO MAKE… A FELT FAIRY TREE TOPPER + FOX
YOU WILL NEED
■ Felt in turquoise, white, yellow, beige and brown
■ Buttons
■ Toy stuffing
■ Embroidery thread in brown, black, red, pink, white and yellow
■ Embroidery needle
■ Pink pencil
■ Pipe cleaners
■ Scissors
■ Pinking/ scalloped shears (optional) How early do you put your tree up? There’s a bit of debate at Craft for Christmas HQ as to when’s the ideal time (“I’m going for wait until December,” says Charlie – Editor), but we all agree that you need plenty of kitsch, colourful decorations to adorn it with. This cute doll – complete with her own star glove and fox mascot – would look great atop a mini tree on a shelf or side table, or proudly displayed on a mantelpiece for a touch of kawaii-style.
Seed beads and buttons give her hair and dress a co-ord finish, and you could also use star-shaped sequins for extra shimmer. A little tip for cutting small shapes (such as the tiny felt stars): pin the paper pattern onto felt and cut around it to get an exact shape.
01 Using the templates on page 146, cut the doll pieces from felt. Position the hair at the top of the face and pin. Sew the hairline onto the face using a tiny running stitch and matching thread.
02 Draw the face using a felt marker or pencil. Thread an embroidery needle with brown thread and sew the eyes and lashes onto the face. The eyes are made using a few curving backstitches, and the eyelashes using small straight stitches. Sew an outline circle for the pupils and then fill in with satin stitch. Sew a tiny straight stitch on for each eyebrow.
Re-thread the needle with red thread and embroider a small, curved mouth using a few backstitches. Stitch the lips using horizontal straight stitches positioned very close together. Sew the seed beads, buttons, plastic stars and any other embellishments you want onto the hair, as shown.
03 Align the two head pieces wrong sides (WS) together and join using whip stitch. Continue stitching until you’re left with a small opening. Fill with toy stuffing and stitch the head closed.
04 Fold the arm shapes in half and whip stitch around the edges, leaving the top open. Push the arms onto a pipe cleaner, as shown.
05 Pin the dress pieces together as shown. We used scallop shears to cut the botto
