Book Review: My Cross Stitch Doll

Even as our kids’ lives get more saturated with technology, many kids still like playing with dolls and imagining worlds for them. Making a doll for a child is a lot of fun, and you can personalize them for the child’s style or interests.

My Cross Stitch Doll by Susan Bates includes charts for making 20 specific dolls, plus a mix and match section with other options (though of course you can mix and match charts from the main section, too).

The dolls are stitched on 28 count evenweave (equivalent to 14 count Aida, but a little easier to sew up when you’re done stitching) and use whole cross stitches and back stitch. There’s a chart for the front and the back of each doll, which are trimmed, sewn together and stuffed to make the dolls.

There’s a wide variety of options for dolls including a ballerina, a person dressed for playing in the snow, girls in pinafores or floral skirts, sportier clothes options like a vintage varsity jacket or joggers, one in pajamas, another in a dapper suit. Accessories like headbands, glasses, bracelets and a backpack could be altered or interchanged to make your own unique doll.

The mix and match section includes additional hairstyles, hats, tops, bottoms and shoes, along with tips for how to combine patterns whether you work from these or ones shown earlier in the book. You could even design your own once you have the dimensions of your doll.

A techniques section at the back of the book includes tips for cross stitching and finishing the dolls. There are a couple of diagrams showing stitching lines but no photos of the process, which might have been helpful for people who haven’t made 3-D cross stitch projects before.

My Cross Stitch Doll is a fun book that’s sure to get you thinking about how you could represent a loved one or yourself in cross-stitch form. Of course you can also just stitch a doll you like without it matching your personality. The book gives you lots of options and the confidence to design your own details if you want to.

About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 20 patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles, suggested retail price $24.99.

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35+ Sunflower Cross Stitch Patterns

If you love patterns for frogs and sardines, animals, food, flowers and more, Happy Cross Stitchers has got you covered. With more than 1,600 patterns as of this writing, you’re almost guaranteed to find something you like.

I don’t know if I’ve missed something that cross stitch patterns featuring sardines are showing up everywhere (this is the second designer I’ve seen with them in the past month or so) but Happy Cross Stitchers has 60 sardine cross stitch patterns. They also have 200 patterns with flowers, and even more than that in their biggest category, which is animals.

Many of the animal cross stitch patterns have a modern nursery feel to them, like this set of four modern boho animal patterns featuring what I’m interpreting as owls, a moose (or it coulr be a deer), a donkey and a cow. Each individual pattern is 100 by 100 stitches and they use six or seven colors. The designs will come out to 7.1 inches or 18.14 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric.

There’s also a large number of Christmas cross stitch patterns, with lots of trees, little houses, Santas and word art. There are lots of bunnies, eggs and chicks in the Easter section.

The modern designs include lots of colorful, graphic florals. There are also well over 100 butterflies, many of which at least look like they could be inspired by real butterflies (though none of them are labeled as to what kind of butterfly they are).

You’ll also find plenty of cute and often funny cat and dog cross stitch patterns, though there are a lot more cats than dogs represented. And then there’s the food section, with patterns for fruits, different kinds of toast, a jar of pickles, doughnuts and more.

And that’s not even all there is in this store! I guess all this is a long way of saying there’s a lot of fun patterns at www.etsy.com/shop/HappyCrossStitchers on Etsy and you should go browse because you’ll probably find something you like. And if you do, I’d like to hear about it!

[Photo: Happy Cross Stitchers]

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