"Thing" of the Week: Jan 17-23

One of my Christmas gifts from my husband this year was a copy of Bag Design: A Handbook for Accessories Designers by Fashionary. I read another review about it before, and definitely encourage anyone with an interest in bag design to read it as well. But I wanted to mention it as my "Thing of the Week" because actually having a copy is opening up a world of design.

I have other leatherworking books with sections on making bags, and even patterns to make those bags yourself. But there was something missing: I didn't see much information on how to really customize those bags to be something modern, functional, and fashionable.

There are a few sections in Bag Design that really make it stand out from other "how to make bags" books: The first is in the "Library" chapter, which has several sections, including a section on Bag Details (showing images of different types of handles, closures, and corner styles), and a section on Bag Embellishments and Accessories (buckles, zipper pulls, and purse charms). As obvious as it sounds, it's nice to have these drawings to help visualize your options when deigning a bag.

There are some bag patterns that you can scan, enlarge, and print out to make some familiar styles (including a Kelly-style pattern, a Boston bag pattern, and a backpack pattern), but my favorite section is beyond that in the "Miscellaneous" chapter. I love the page on Common Logo Placement Positions, and the Bag Spec Sheet will soon prove to be invaluable...but the majority of the book has bag templates. These are line drawings from various angles that you can look at while you're designing your own bag, or even trace, and then you can go back to the beginning and look at the Bag Details and adjust them to make your perfect bag.

For advanced leatherworkers and bag designers, Bag Design might not be of much help, but I do think having the templates as well as options could still prove useful: No matter how good you get, sometimes having a collection of patterns to inspire you can help. There isn't a lot of "how to" in this book either, so beginners may need a little more instruction than it provides. But if you feel you've graduated from the various "How to make things out of leather" books, and want to take the next step toward designing your own, I think this book fills the gap nicely.