Product Description

No woman would be without one - a bag is the accessory that carries any number of essential items. A bag can be as individual as the person using it and Susan Briscoe has come up with a myriad of inspirational suggestions alongside practical guidance on how to make bags that proclaim their owner's personality. A 'rice sack' bag is a practical, everyday shoulderbag, zipped for security, patchworked to co-ordinate with a special outfit and decorated with sashiko quilting. A rucksack echoes today's fashion for backpacks, machine quilted for added charm. The simple to make envelope bag, quilted in silk, is perfect for bridesmaids - or even the bride. With so many ideas, Susan Briscoe never loses sight of practicalities, with suggestions for fabrics, ideas for quilting and patchwork styles, and step by step instructions for all projects illustrated with full colour photography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26610 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Patchwork & Quilting Magazine, July 2003
I give this book the star choice with a firm and unconditional recommendation

About the Author
Susan Briscoe studied Visual Art and Drama at the University College of Wales before moving to Japan to teach English. Here she became fascinated by Japanese fabrics and their patchwork and quilting techniques. She has succeeded in combining her design and needlework skills with a need for practical accessories in her job as a footpath officer. Susan now writes and designs for needlecraft magazines and teaches bag making and sashiko quilting. She has exhibited at UK national quilting shows as well as in Japan. Susan Briscoe lives in Wrexham, North Wales.

Customer Reviews

Pretty but tricky
The bags are attractive but the instructions are not easy to follow. I made the 'rice sack' bag, and I'm a fairly experienced sewer, but the pictures did not make it easy to understand what the structure of the bag would be when completed - and if you aren't clear exactly what you're aiming for, it's quite difficult to follow the step-by-step instructions. Diagrams showing how the bag will look when assessmbled would have been helpful.

Nice book, ambitious title
Good presentation and photos, lots of different bags, predominantly with a quilting hobbyist as the intended user of the bag ( i.e. bags are titled ' quilter's briefcase' and so on, meant to be used as receptacles for quilting equipment). I couldn't help noticing that although the title states 21 bags, there are in actual fact only 13 different styles, the rest being variations using different fabrics.

Fun and easy projects!
I found the step by step photos and the patchwork diagrams very helpful. The Rice Sack Bag is one of the more challenging bags in the book, maybe requiring a bit of lateral thinking (!), but the instructions are easy to follow. Projects like the Envelope Bag and the Double Bottle Bag are simple and fun. There is ample scope for adapting the bags with your own choice of quilt blocks, fabrics etc. - indeed, the author encourages this. Plenty here for beginners through to more experienced quilters/stitchers who are looking for something different.