Susan Cariello
Search Press
10 February 2011/ ISBN 1844486762
How-To Books/Sewing and Embroidery
Amazon
US
// UK
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
If you, like
me have admired those elaborately decorated bags in boutiques and
wished they had one to match your new outfit, then look no further.
Here is a whole book on making them and decorating them; surprisingly
easy to do and a lot of fun.
I’ve been making these for years and sell my designs to magazines
so was particularly interested to see a book of them. They differ
a fair bit from mine, which use a lot of appliquéd offcuts
of fabric from my dressmaking as these are decorated with embroidered
flowers. Just a few simple and easily mastered stitches are used
and the staged instructions for these are excellent, being large
and colorful. The fibers used for them vary from fancy yarns to
sparkly thread on reels and everything in between; if you knit or
crochet you are likely to have a lot of leftovers and these can
be put to good use. There are beads as well to give sparkle, and
even some ribbon embroidery and roses made from lengths of fabric.
Each project is handsomely and helpfully illustrated with large
photographed staged steps, and there are pattern pieces for every
bag. These range from large tote bags for your shopping to elegant
clutch purses for evening and are made from a wide variety of fabrics.
If you are a novice stitcher then this is not the book for you yet
as some knowledge is expected to enable you to enlarge the patterns
and sew them together, although the instructions are good. The book
is divided into four sections, each for a season with its associated
bags. This book is a lot of fun and certainly taught me a lot I
didn’t know about making this type of bag. One for the keeper
shelf.
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