girls' best book

A friend gave me this book the other day. I love it. If it weren't for the fact that I've already purchased something for my 10-year-old niece (here's a hint), she'd certainly be getting a copy of it for Christmas. (Never fear; her birthday is quickly approaching.)


The cover is printed on a very thick cardboard with a diecut doll that pops out. At first I wasn't sure what to make of this, since it seemed like removing the doll would destroy the cover. But as it turns out, the doll snugly returns to her little home for safekeeping. So it's a perfect solution for a book cover/toy.


And I love that the doll has a back side, too. Cute, yes?



The book gives great instructions, projects, and patterns for all manner of crafting, from embroidery to knitting to sewing. It's brilliant. It even has cardboard templates for making pompoms, which is something I did a lot of when I was ten.


Tsia is a little young for it, but that hasn't stopped us from enjoying it. She's been doing her own creative interpretation on the embroidery cards.

I suspect we'll be using this book for a long time. Tsia spent Sunday afternoon selecting fabric scraps from the bin at the studio so we can make clothing for the doll following the patterns in the back of the book. Tsia will be stitching these herself on the sewing machine, with a little assistance from me.