“If you’re an OG American Girl fan, welcome to an all-new crafty adventure with your favorite historical characters.”
For the first time in a long time (if ever?), the American Girl Company has released a craft book that’s more geared towards their adult fanbase.
As a brief overview: this book is split into several sections. There are general American Girl logo designs, Historical Character designs (Molly, Kirsten, Addy, Rebecca, Samantha, Maryellen, Kaya, Kit, Julie, and Josefina) and finally a catchphrase set of designs.
I’m first going to discuss the cross-stitch patterns followed by my overall thoughts at the end.
“Beautiful dolls, and play in general, are not just for kids anymore.”
Introduction
“Cross-stitch is, fundamentally, a storytelling craft.”
The first section gives a brief overview of the American Girl Company followed by an explanation of cross-stitching and its importance to history.
There’s a few sections on the basics of cross-stitch, including the vocabulary used and instructions on how to read a pattern. There’s even a small section of extra crafts in here that can be used to showcase your finished project.
Cross-Stitch Crafts –Hoop Art (describing how to display a cross-stitch hoop) –No-Sew Throw Pillow (using craft paint to “glue” your cross-stitch to a throw pillow case) –Wall-Hanging Banner (using craft felt, a wooden dowel, ribbon and glue) –Jacket (cross-stitching attached to a jacket) –Greeting Card (gluing your cross-stitch to a greeting card) –Framed Art (inexplicably, the photograph accompanying this one is of a sailboat – not even a cross-stitched sailboat!) –Ornaments (suggested: add glue and glitter, then hang the hoop from the tree). –Hand Towel (cross-stitch directly on a cross-stitch friendly towel)
Part One: Iconic American Girl – this section seems to just be showing two patterns, not particularly exciting but I guess it’s nice to have them.
Cross-Stitch Patterns Include –American Girl Logo (the AG with the little star between the A and G) –American Girl Classic Star (the star-within-a-star logo)
Part Two: I’m a
“Each of the following designs is a representation of a Historical Character, featuring one of her iconic pieces of clothing or accessories.”
This section finally gets to the historical characters but we still don’t really see them. We get snippets of their clothes/accessories along with the phrase “I’m a” to be stitched before the item…which is…okay. It’s an okay base for patterns. When I picked up this book, I wasn’t really itching to make a cross-stitch of a beret or t-shirt with a peace sign…but I can get behind some of the designs.
Cross-Stitch Patterns Include –I’m a(n) (literally the words “I’m an” followed by the star from earlier) –Molly (a blue beret) –Kirsten (her pink bonnet) –Addy (the cowrie shell necklace) –Rebecca (a purple hat) –Samantha (a bow) –Maryellen (a black poodle skirt with pink dog) –Kaya (a belt pouch) –Kit (her white hat with the green ribbon) –Julie (a white T-shirt with a peace sign) –Josefina (her shawl)
Part Three: AG Life
“There are things that unite fans who grew up with American Girl…”
Here we can get some of the iconic designs — there’s a few silhouettes of the girls, and some fun references to the older catalogues — including Coconut and licorice! And there’s some realllllly left-field designs. Hey, remember that puberty book you read? Don’t you want to memorialize it with a cross-stitch pattern and hang it in the kitchen?
Cross-Stitch Patterns Include –Besties (Coconut and Licorice are back!!) –The Care & Keeping of You (just the phrase: “Everything I know I learned from The Care & Keeping of You”) –Style Icon (the phrase “style icon” surrounded by assorted American Girl accessories (i.e. Molly’s bag, Kirsten’s bow, a hairbrush)) –Meet me at the Café (a reference to the ‘in person’ café, cross stitch pattern literally says “Meet me at the café” with a cinnamon roll) –Wear it Up (front-facing hairstyle silhouettes for Kirsten, Addy, and Kit) –Dreaming of the Stars (just the phrase “Dreaming of the STARS” with little stars around it) –Wear it Down (front-facing hairstyle silhouettes for Molly, Samantha, and Kaya) –Raised by American Girl (just the phrase “raised by American Girl”) –Walk like an American Girl (full body side-silhouettes of Samantha, Kirsten and Addy walking) –Rebel with a Hair Ribbon (the phrase “Rebel with a Hair Ribbon” with a ribbon on top)
Overall Thoughts
I had a lot of high hopes for this one but after reading it…I honestly feel like this one is better to get from the library.
Let’s start with the positives – there were a few patterns that I genuinely liked and could see myself making. Kirsten’s pink bonnet, the silhouettes of the hair and of the girls walking were all quite fun and iconic.
I also liked that each pattern was accompanied by a paragraph explaining why it was important and what was being showcased. I originally didn’t pick up on what “Meet me at the Café” was supposed to mean, so that was helpful.
Moving along to my critiques…while some patterns I liked, a majority of them were okay to meh in my opinion. Nothing particularly wowing and I definitely didn’t have the desire to make everything from the book.
Starting from the top, the “Cross-Stitch Crafts” section just provides different locations that you can put your various cross-stitch patterns on…which is fine…but also felt a bit meh. These crafts are just described, not shown, which was a bit annoying to me. If you want me to hang something from a dowel or stitch it on a jacket, you could at least show me the final project!
Moving along to the cross-stitch patterns, like I said earlier… they were okay.
Of the twenty-three patterns provided, I just don’t have any desire to make a majority of them. There’s too many phrases and objects and not enough interesting things to make. (No matter what you say, there’s no way I’m putting the puberty book phrase up on my wall).
This book is marketed towards adults who were fans of this company and their dolls for decades, so I went in expecting a certain level of complexity to the projects. And based off the title, I also expected each project to be firmly about the dolls.
For example, how fun would it have been to have a series of patterns based on the historical pets? Or to expand the full body silhouettes so you could make all the girls!?
In all of the old historical companion books there is this wonderful emphasis on crafts that the girls would’ve actually made in their eras. I would have loved to have a ‘historical’ section to this cross-stitch book. You could make a sampler like Felicity, decorate an apron like Kirsten, practice your stitching like Samantha.
I hate to be that person, but the old crafting books were so iconic BECAUSE they were so grounded in the history and the company went so far above and beyond in terms of research and historical accuracy. And this book has some homage to the originals, it just wasn’t that great or useful.
