Book Review – Pouches of various shapes and sizes

I haven’t been buying many books lately, as most books during the winter season are devoted to knitting and crochet. So I turned my attention to sewing books for bags and purses. I kind of stopped looking for a while because I had too many books on bags already, then I spotted this book with a really cute cover! Look at all these metal frame purses!

The full title is いろんな形&サイズが作れる がま口がいっぱい which loosely translates to Making pouches of all shapes and sizes. There are 35 projects to be made in all, with 3 lessons covered in full with step by step photos. There are also basic technical lessons ranging from pattern tracing, tools, even embroidery stitching. I thought it would be really useful to have pictorial instructions because I have tried making one of these before but failed terribly. Well, at least in my opinion because my finishing was not perfect and there were dents in the metal frame (which was probably due to using the wrong tools). So I wanted to learn how to do it properly.

Here’s a look at the contents page.

For each design, there are a few variations, which totals up to 35 different purse designs in all.

The book starts off with the basic metal frame pouch, in two variations.

Followed immediately by a detailed lesson on making the basic pouch.

Close up of the photo instructions.

Full page view of the step by step instructions.

Now that you know how to make a basic metal frame purse, you can move on to make the following…

A mobile phone case (with darts at the base)

Card case, Lip balm/Lipstick case

Pencil case, Spectacles case

Gathered pouch

If you can find these large handbag metal frames, you can make this too! This is so pretty!  I actually saw many of these handbag frames being sold in Japan but as I’m not the type to carry dainty purses, I didn’t buy any. 😛

Plump purse (the title says that literally!)

Close up of the base of the “plump” purse.

There are some very interesting designs, like this box purse, where the clasps meet at the side and the purse is in a box shape. Perfect for storing earrings and rings.

Or make a larger one like this – Vanity purse

Long wallets/purses. This pattern includes a zipped coin compartment in the middle which also acts as a divider.

This purse is cute both inside and out! It uses a mother-daughter type of metal frame. I don’t know what this type of clasp is called in English, but the book says it’s a mother and daughter metal frame.

A more unique type of frame – the L-shape frame, where the clasps are located in the top corner instead of the middle.

Another interesting way of applying a simple metal clasp on a handbag.

Other than the 3 fully detailed lessons with step by step photos, the book includes basic technical knowledge lessons such as this one – tracing, cutting and marking the patterns. There are also lessons on embroidery, fabric treatment and even special tools that will help you create a better result when making a metal frame purse.

The how-to-make pages are located after the lessons, and they look like this.

Personally, I feel that the layout is a little cramped. See the close up below, the size/materals and pattern info are listed with the 4 lines of text, there are no steps written down in point form as everything is in diagrams. On some pages, they’ve even managed to squeeze two patterns in one page. But I guess this is because most of the projects are constructed in similar ways so there is no need to repeat some of the information.

1 sheet of actual size patterns attached.

and for those of you who are wondering where to buy the different metal frames, especially the really pretty ones with colored beads on the clasps, look no further!  http://www.inazuma.biz Website is in Japanese though.

Title : がま口がいっぱい いろんな形&サイズが作れる (Heart Warming Life Serires)
Publisher : Nihon Vogue
ISBN : 978-4529052344