I spent the afternoon sprucing up my angel tree topper. It is a vintage tree topper for sure. My good friend Lorraine crocheted it for me over forty years ago and has been the only tree topper we have had ever since. She had stiffened the body, wings and halo with sugar water over a cone form. Over the years they had discoloured and I wanted to redo it. Removing the sugar water and redoing it seemed like a very daunting task and therefore the process kept being put off. Last year when we took it down after the holidays I decided to give it a coat of paint which was much less daunting. Needless to say she has spent the better part of a year near the family room fire place and today with a bit of time on my hands - my Christmas cards have been mailed - I thought I would see what I could do. I took the pieces apart as they had been simply hand stitched to each other. The halo, the wings and the head part were seperated from the body where they were stitched. I did make a few notes about where they had been stitched together so I could replicate the process once they were painted. I chose a warm white acrylic paint and applied it with a stiff brush so it would get in between the stitches and in the insides of the openings. I covered all the areas even though they were not all discoloured to ensure that she had a nice even colouring - inside and outside of the skirt, the wings and the halo. The head and bodice had not been starched and was still in really good condition. Only four little spots which I painted over using the end of a toothpick. I painted the halo in gold but that did not work as well as I would have liked so I added some yellow paint and then a thin layer of silver gleams which was the best I could hope for. After all the pieces were dry I stitched her back together. She is looking so much better. I decided to make her a little muff because with only the ends of the pink pipe cleaners twisted together did not really do hands all that well. I dug through my fabric stash and found a piece that was the right colour. I trimmed a small piece and stitched it together to created a tube. After turning it inside out I folded the bottom edge up into the opening and then placed the muff over "her hands" and then used the end of a large needle to stuff the top edge into the top opening covering the ends of the pipe cleaners. That was much better. I am auditioning a gold star sequin held in place with a head pin to see how I like it. It might be replaced with a silver one or might just be removed instead. We shall see!! I expect she has another 40 years to go so at some point she will be gracing someone else's tree but that will be fine when the time comes. Therese
