Handmade Bags is full of unique and gorgeous bags to make from a variety of materials, with detailed step-by-step instructions, tons of photos, and an introduction to basic sewing at the beginning.
This would be a fantastic book, BUT and this is a big BUT-there are no patterns. For the purses made out of alternative materials or knitted, this is not an issue, as the instructions and photos clearly show how to make the purse. For the sewn purses there is a small photo of a grid with a pattern outline shown and each grid square equals 2". The book has a section on how to make and use patterns, but for less experienced sewers this can be daunting. For purses in a basic square or rectangle shape making a pattern would be easy, but several of these bags have unique shapes so creating a pattern for them would be more difficult. Although it states how much fabric is needed for each purse, it doesn't give cut dimensions. Making the purses without patterns would be ok if the directions stated "cut the shape with a 16" base ending with a 20" fan shaped top."
Handmade Bags sends a mixed-message. It is written in a basic, mostly easy to use format that breaks the process down, so even a novice sewer could make make one of these bags, but the lack of patterns or cutting dimensions pushes it into the realm of experienced sewers. This makes the book frustrating for folks like me with basic sewing skills, but no experience or time to learn to make patterns.