Changes

I love handbags, but I resent paying the prices demanded by manufacturers of 'good' bags. Additionally, I often find a bag I like but the colour / shape / size / capacity / internal layout isn't ''quite'' what I had in mind, so I end up spending rather a lot of money and compromising. The solution is to make my own bags and whilst I was confident about sewing fabric bags, I was nervous about using leather, not least because leather isn't very forgiving when it comes to mistakes and it's usually more expensive than fabric. I needed help. Anna Mazur's ''The Handbag Workshop'' came to me free through NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.

The bags themselves looked a little old fashioned, but I was looking to learn how to design and make bags, rather than just having patterns which that I could use. The eighteen patterns which you get are varied and would form the basis for most bags which that you might need. There are clear instructions about what equipment you might need and I'd advise considering whether you're going to use the equipment on a regular basis: it could prove expensive for a one-off craft project.

There are clear instructions on sewing techniques. I liked that the author emphasises that she tries out seams every time to see what adjustments she needs to make to get the results she wants. If someone with Mazur's experience does this then it was an absolute necessity for me. The book is packed with tips - the sort of things which you only work out when you've made a (usually costly) mistake, like putting pots of leather paint inside another container so that it if they do fall over the problems is within a confined area and easily cleared up. It's recommended to that on thick materials you have curved corners rather than sharp right angles which you need to cut into to make them look smart, but which weakens the structure.

I was less convinced about the book's claim to be suitable for beginners and experienced handbag makers alike. I don't know how to flatten a sema seam using a seam stick - and there were one or two other areas where I would have appreciated more help, possibly in the form of more diagrams. There is help available online and it's a minor quibble in an otherwise inspirational book.