The Bag Making Bible: The Complete Creative Guide to Sewing Your Own Bags Kindle Edition

It was amazingly complicated and difficult to get to the digital patterns. First, I had to find the link in the book. Then, I had to create an account and log in before I could download the patterns. The first username I tried did not meet the requirements, BUT THERE WERE NO REQUIREMENTS LISTED! Of course, the error message only appears after I have filled out the password (twice) and 'captcha' data. If it showed up earlier, I'd already scrolled to where I wouldn't see it.Then, the screen to display the different downloads did not display correctly, requiring me to guess at the 'alphabetical order' of the titles and just randomly stab at the blank screen in the hope that Ba came before Be. Trust me, it isn't clear where they learned the alphabet, but it wasn't in an English speaking school. Either that, or they flunked that semester.And the final straw is that I have NO idea how big these should be printed. There isn't a scale anywhere on the patterns to let you know. Margins? No Margins? A4? Letter? Landscape? Portrait? No clue.

As others have pointed out, this book is so poorly written, I have no idea how the author managed to have it published! Photos are few and confusing (no cohesion), instructions for each step are very brief, reader has to jump from one chapter to the other in order to finish a simple project (forget about the complex ones). I'm an experienced sewer and have made a couple of handbags that don't look like an oven mitt. Hummm... Funny how many authors/experts have never worked in the industry. My advise: There are plenty of free tutorials on YouTube that show you step by step the construction process of very complex handbag designs. Needless to say I returned it!

I'm pretty good with a sewing machine and have made tons of projects. I bought this book because of the high number of good reviews, and because I fell in love with the Getaway Bag pattern and HAD to make it. I finally got my stuff together, went shopping with the list from the book, and got started yesterday. Wow. Just wow. I finished cutting the pieces today. It took me probably 3 hours total yesterday and today to get everything cut and laid out. I like to take my time to make sure I don't mess up my pieces and have to redo steps or make a fabric run because I've goofed myself all out of fabric. I have already found 1 pattern error, 3 errors in the cutting list, and I suspect one more, although I won't be sure until I start construction. I haven't worked out the math yet, but her shopping list will short you on exterior trim fabric and interfacing. I ran out of interfacing and exterior trim fabric. There are 2 places in the cutting list where is says exterior fabric when it should say exterior TRIM fabric. I figured one of them out before I cut, but I didn't pick up on the other until after I had everything cut and I realized that I was missing some pieces.The bags are lovely, but beware. Read carefully, and take everything with a grain of salt. I don't think the patterns were proofed or tested before publication, as these are errors that could have been easily caught during testing.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!I've already recommended it to other sewing friends. It's starts with educating you on sewing machine, notions, interfacing and even fabrics that you'd use for creating your bag or tote. Teaches you to use patterns. The information is helpful for all sewing needs. It helps you with zippers, snaps and Velcro pockets and different closers. There are tutorials and patterns for several bags including a weekend bag, office bag and a clutch to name a few. The patterns alone pay for the book.I purchased another book that had good information and patterns, but this book is is more detailed. I think it's detailed enough for a pre-teen or and child with some sewing knowledge could follow this book. I say it's for beginners or intermediate sewer, but I would also recommend it for the person that has years of sewing under their belt. Just because it has patterns for some fun bags and just a great book to add to your collection.Did I say, I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!

This is a great book. The only reason I gave it three stars is because the text is light gray and very difficult to read. I have tried different glasses and everything in lighting and it's just too difficult to read. I wish they had you regular black type instead of very thin light grey wording. But the content of the book is great.

Although I found the sewing aspect of making bags useful, I was disappointed it didn't have at least one or two patterns in the back for me to try out. I'm more a visual learner then a reading learner so found the instructions a tad confusing in some places. The pictures helped a lot, but I would have preferred pictures as you go in construction of the different bags, the learning experience would have been much richer.

I chose this book, based on the number of reviews. Having struggled to understand it, I’m amazed that it has so many positive reviews. I am an experienced sewer, used to following complex dress patterns, but found even the most basic of these patterns hard to follow. There are NO DIAGRAMS, and no finished dimensions for any of the bags. As others have said, there is no flow to the instructions and you are darting around trying to find the relevant bits to follow. I also didn’t like a single one of the bags in the book. I can think of nothing positive to say about this book. In the end, I went onto the Kath Kidstone website, noted the dimensions of the bag I liked, made up my own pattern and constructed my own bag successfully. This book is going to the charity shop.

I bought this book after watching Lisa make one on Sewing Quarter and duly bought my fabric to make one. What should have been easy enough to do, based on the TV programme, finished up being frustrating. You are forever flicking the pages of the book to find the instructions for the part you are working on, for instance "turn to page 142", "turn to page 102", and then you return to the page you were on in the first place. Because of this, I ended up putting my straps on wrong and now have to correct them. I won't be making any more bags from this book.

First the good bits:The bags are really lovely and the patterns do work well, once you get your head around them.I also like the way that Lisa Lam describes the processes and goes into great detail about the materials and components.Now for the niggles:As others have mentioned, aarrggh - that pale grey font! WHY oh why is it everywhere at the moment, from books totablets? What's wrong with black, or at least dark grey? Pale grey is tricky enough for those with decent eyesight, let alone people whose eyesight isn't so perfect - it's just too similar to the white paper it's printed on - there's no contrast.Next, those instructions! What on earth was the author thinking, putting the instructions for each bag all over the place, and using totally different fabrics for the tutorials from the pictures of the finished bags?Even as a very experienced sewer, I had great difficulty following the tutorials as I couldn't see which bag was which, and which section applied to which bag. I actually gave up trying to follow them in the end, and just used the patterns only, making them up in my own way. I can well understand how a beginner might be put off making bags forever!A few tweaks and this book could go from just three stars to five.

I bought this book planning to teach myself bag making. I also bought the video. What a disappointment. I have made other very simple bags with other books and patterns and this was so frustrating. I made the reversible bucket bag. My book is now annotated with my own instructions. The design with home made bias binding as handles was inefficient as bias binding of course stretches. The base does not fit well and the instructions include a note about this and to make pleats if it doesn't fit - not very satisfactory. The illustrations might look good but do not always illustrate the precise details of the instructions they are matched to so do not do their job. Despite my frustrations I kept going and finished it and yes it looks pretty but not very practical with its stretchy handles and I learned more about what not to do than what to do. Won't be risking any others in the book.

Books are a means of communicating ideas. Who was it then who decided to design this book with a pale, pale grey font? Some of the fonts are OK in the book but generally it is impossible to see clearly without straining. This book dates from 2010 I understand, already the pale grey font, so loved in the mid 2000s had been assigned to the dump, so why did they choose it? Inexplicable. I love Lisa Lam's work but very disappointed by this book which I was hoping I would treasure and find so useful.I am not sure if the ebook would be better, but at least you can get a better font working for you.