Review: Pokemon Cross Stitch

December 19, 2023 by Sarah White

It doesn’t seem like the popularity of Pokemon is slowing down, and it’s always fun to stitch characters from pop culture as gifts or for yourself if that’s a fandom you belong to. My daughter never got into Pokemon, but her best friend loves it, so when I saw Pokemon Cross Stitch from Maria Diaz I wanted to check it out.

The book includes 54 patterns for different Pokemon characters, though some projects have more than one Pokemon in them and some are repeated. Pikachu, for example, is in eight of the projects, with Eevee; Piplup; Scorbunny; Cramorant; Pichu and Raichu; Grooky; Sobble; and by itself.

You’re likely to find a favorite in this collection since there are so many patterns.

Each project includes a full-color chart, floss color charts and a skill rating between 1 and 3 Pokeballs. The first 20 projects in the book are also shown fully stitches, while the rest are just shown in chart form. There are also cute illustrations of the characters in each piece, and a little fun fact about them.

A section on cross stitch basics covers materials, how to use a hoop, how to keep the edges of your work from fraying, how to find the center of your fabric and how to read patterns and make different stitches, among other things.

If you’ve never stitched before you might want a little more basic how-to information than this book provides, but it would also be a fun gift for someone who likes Pokemon who you might be trying to get interested in starting cross stitch (or who might already have an interest in cross stitch).

About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 54 patterns. Published 2023 by David and Charles. Suggested retail price $19.99.

And if you’re looking for more Poekmon cross stitch patterns, check out this roundup of Pokemon cross stitch I did a long time ago!

Have you read?

Easy Ways to Fancy Up Your Biscornu

The cross stitcher behind the blog Sirious Stitches is quite into biscornu.

If you’re not, a quick primer: biscornu are three-dimensional cross-stitched objects with eight points, often with an indention in the middle that makes them look a bit like doughnuts without the hole. They can be just about any size and subject you can think of. They’re often used as pincushions but can also be seasonal decor or just decoration for any time of year.

I’ve got a collection of biscornu cross stitch patterns here.

Once you’ve stitched one or several (they are a little addicting) you might wonder what you can add to them to make them even more extra.

It very much depends on the design of your biscornu and the look you are going for, but Sirious Stitches has a great post all about some of the options you might consider.

I don’t want to give you the whole list because you need to go visit and see all of their great biscornu they’ve stitched, but one really easy thing that you can do with a lot of designs is take advantage of that center indent by adding a button, beads, silk flower or another embellishment.

This is great to do just with a basic button from your stash that coordinates with the design and colors of the cross stitching, but it’s extra fun if you have a button that’s on theme, such as a leaf for a fall biscornu or a flower shaped button for a floral design. Add a jingle bell to a Christmas pattern, or a charm if you don’t have a button that coordinates.

Just this one idea is sure to get you thinking about ways to embellish biscornu (not to mention other cross stitch projects) but head over to Sirious Stitches to see all of their ideas for embellishing biscornu to make these already fun projects even more fun.

Have you ever made biscornu? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]