My Cross Stitch Doll

Dolls never go out of fashion, despite the introduction of computer games and electronic toys. There's something comforting about having one to cuddle. A doll is a best friend: someone to take with you on an adventure, tell your secrets to and have tea parties with. Part of the fun of having a doll is dressing them, brushing their hair and looking after them - and of course, creating imaginary worlds for you both to inhabit.My aim with this book was to design a set of dolls that would appeal to grown-ups as well as children. While you may not want to play with them as an adult, you could display them on a shelf as pretty keepsakes, or keep them in your sewing room - if you are lucky enough to have a dedicated sewing space.This book provides you with the patterns for 20 different dolls, each one in its own unique and colourful outfit. They all come with a front and back panel, which are stitched together and filled with stuffing to make a three-dimensional doll, which I hope you will treasure for years to come.The designs are made up of full cross stitches, meaning that no tricky fractional stitches are used. There's backstitching in some areas, to add extra details to the clothes and for facial features - but generally you should find them pretty easy to stitch.The additional heads, torsos and legs charts in the Mix and Match section of the book allow you even more scope to customise parts of the dolls. You could, for example, swap any of the leg sections on the main doll charts with each other or choose one of the extra leg charts, or swap the hair and faces over. This gives you a chance to be imaginative and come up with your own doll outfits and new characters. This book is a fun way to explore your inner child and to share the joy you discover with the younger people in your life.Happy stitching!

Susan Bates _(@susanbatesdesigner) is a freelance designer and illustrator who is well known for her cross stitch designs. To date she has had 10 books published: 9 cross stitch books and one book on freestyle embroidery. She regularly works for cross stitch magazines in the UK, such as The World of Cross Stitching and Cross Stitcher. Other magazines she has designed for have included Cross Stitch Crazy, Cross Stitch Gold, Cross Stitch Card Shop, Inspirations, Discovering Needlework, Papercraft Inspirations and The Cross Stitch Collection.Susan also sells her designs to companies who produce cross stitch kits. For example, she has worked on a set of floral designs for Creative World of Crafts. She produces designs for the US company Craftways and she has worked on a number of designs for DMC._Susan studied Fine Art and gained a degree from Bath College of Higher Education. She later trained as an art teacher, taking a PGCE in Art and Design. She loves many different types of crafts and is an avid knitter and crocheter. She also works as a freelance knitting and crochet teacher at Sew in Brighton.