Customer Reviews

Making Leather Handbags and Other Stylish Accessories

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is great! Anybody who wants to make there own unique handbag or small leather good, you have come to the right place. This book tells you step by step how to make a handbag. With the excellent illustrations and patterns included it is a shoe in (even though it's a bag) that you will have no problem making these fabulous creations. Not only do they give you detailed instructions but they also have a great gallery of bags made using the patterns in the book by the students of the renowned Fashion Institute of Technology. Their design embellishments will give the reader ideas for creating their own personalized handbag or stylish accessory. Listed in the book are materials needed and supplies you need to make a leather handbag. They even list resources for where you can buy leathers and materials. This book is excellent and I recommend it to all who want to let out their inner fabulous fashionista!

I own several books on making handbags, and this is hands down my favorite. Instead of using the book for its step by step patterns, I've used it as a resource book on how to create things with alternative materials. I've applied the techniques contained in this book to many alternative materials such as naugahide (sp?) and vinyl. What I really appreciated was the breakdown so the projects can be done on home sewing machines instead of by hand or with industrial machines. All of my bags are made from recycled materials and owning this reference has really helped me bring my work up to a whole new level. The project gallery at the end of the book is just as inspirational as the projects themselves. Enjoy!

This is an excellent book - clear, well written instructions, concepts that are workable, and beautifully photographed. Be aware though, that this book is a rerelease with a different cover, and slightly different title.
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This is a wonderful book. It is great for novice handbag designers to use as a learning tool...It's also great for expert designers to use for great inspiration. I would recommend it to anyone who loves handbags!

This book is essentially a guide to a student show but includes all of the patterns and contstruction techniques to make the items featured. Excellent instructions plus guidance on choosing suitable materials and where and how to obtain them. Includes all the patterns on tear out pages so that you can take them to the copier to enlarge them to the exact size of the samples. It even includes e-mail addresses for the people whose work is featured. Truly an excellent additon to the library of the aspiring handbag artist.

I'm disappointed in this book. The patterns supplied are much smaller than you would expect, making their appeal limited. Only half of the projects are actual handbags. All the projects use very lightweight garment leathers, which lack the structure a good bag needs. The instructions are okay, and the illustrations are generally helpful. The gallery section is just terrible; the examples shown are reminiscent of summer camp or slumber party projects in my opinion. It seems to be intended for cloth sewing hobbyists looking to make something simple in leather. Not for the serious leatherworkers. In all, I do not recommend this book, and would have returned it if the combined shipping costs would not have cost more than the book itself.

I was a student of Nicole Malone and this book helps me to further my handbag making skills. The hobo bag is certainly a great one to learn from this book. But you must know simple sewing skills in order to follow what this book instructs or you may lose the directions. Great book though!

This was a great book with wonderful ideas, Beautiful pictures, Great Patterns, and Easy to follow instructions.

This book has a lot of cool ideas. The best part is that they give an excellent discription and pictures of all the tools you will use! This has been helpful not only for the handbag styles they show you how to make but in making my own ideas come alive!

Loved this book. It explained things so clearly and the pictures are very helpful. The patterns included were also helpful as well. I would recommend this book to anyone serious about purse making.