Build a Bag Book & Templates: Tote Bags: Sew 15 Stunning Projects and Endless Variations

This is a great book for anyone who is into bag making. Templates are excellent and sturdy for lasting a long while. I would recommend this book to everyone who enjoys making bags.

Debbie Shore is absolutely amazing. Such a friendly demeanor. The patterns are easy to follow, and the templates are AMAZING!!! Such an awesome idea!! I'm definitely ordering more of her books!

I really like this book and it helps to have the templates for some great bags.

Love love love this! I am a beginner sewer and this was super easy to follow for the pattern I chose. I could not do the zipper for the top of the bag but thats my own inexperience talking. I will be using this book to get better at zippers as the instructions are easy to read and follow.

Honestly this book is fantastic, super informative and the step by step photos and instructions and wonderful.The only thing I would prefer is slightly sturdier templates, but that’s such a tiny thing to critique

Love this book. It was a gift. I can’t wait to read

Useful referral for sewing tote bags

Just love this product! Great book!

To be fair with this review I have made 3 items: Simple tote page 30-33, Foldaway Shopper page 66-69 and Drawstring bag page 78-81Let's start with the good points:- Book looks great, glossy hardcover, lovely pictures of the bags- The templates are made of nice rigid material and you can just see through it, so if you want to cut your fabric with certain patterns in the middle you can do it with ease.- There are 15 different bags mostly the same size apart from purses and drawstring bag.- 2 of the 3 I made turned out very well and in my opinion looked professionally made.My general frustrations are as follow:1. The seam allowance not stated on each pattern. I had to read through the first chapters all over to figure out it is 5mm. Because I don't make one after another straight away, I forget and had to read through the first chapters again!2. Fabric. There is a chapter on materials which basically says use whatever you like, however the writer likes cotton. I would prefer the paper pattern style where for each style of bag, list what will be good to use and also state what kind of fabric used in the picture.I used curtain like fabric for the simple tote - good, craft fabric for Foldaway shopper - not good, very flimsy (ended up adding lightweight interface on the top third of the bag to make it look and hang better); cotton for drawstring - I feel unsure that using fusible fleece is the right choice because it made it bulky. Maybe lightweight interface would be better?!3. Step-by-step pictures are tiny, and only shows how it suppose to look after the step is completed and at times you have to guess what you are looking at. (I am a visual learner so diagrams and clear pictures are more important than just words).Specific frustrations:1. Simple tote and Drawstring. When lining up 2 pieces together, it is quite difficult to ensure they are dead level at the seam, maybe a pointer on how make this easier? I ended up basting them around the seam and checking if the match up, unpick and redo if necessary.The joins get quite bulky and difficult to sew. Maybe press the seam in different directions to make them easier to sew.2. Foldaway bagThere isn't instruction on which way of the fabric, the pocket should be cut, I cut the wrong way first, and recut again to rectify it.Very flimsy, end result doesn't look as good as the picture the picture so I added lightweight interface.Is there a reason of sewing to handles in an angle? Does it make the bag hang better? I don't know as it's not stated, and I prefer a straight look, so that's how I sew it.3. Drawstring bagThere are mistakes in the measurements stated in the book. Finished size isn't 20.5 x 33 x 5cm, but 20.5 x 13 x 5 cm. This confused me when cutting because I wanted to make sure I cut the fabric correctly.Following next instruction cut 2 strips of lining fabric 25.5 x 10 cm for ribbon channels meant that they were way wider that the width of the bag (see pict), 20x10cm will do the job.It is too low to pin the strip 7.5cm from the top, I ended up pinning 5cm from the top, but I think 4 cm for this size of bag will also do nicely.I don't generally like writing on reference books, but in this case I had to, otherwise I will make the same mistakes again in the future.

I have a few bag making books and have made quite a few over the years, but I think I have never come across such a badly photographed and explained book on how to make (the bags that I made) .In particular the green tree pattern, bow on side tote is appalling explained and the photos do absolutely nothing to aid the ‘explanations ‘. I was shocked by how poor they were. I wondered whether Ms Shore had just given the book to a junior and told them to do the photographs with Ms Shore’s explanations. Eventually I worked out the lime green lining zipper end tabs, but not from the photos in the book, and so too with the ‘wrap inside turn around, wrap over sew together and turn inside out’ (paraphrased) lime green lining long side zipper strips, but it was not at all helpful to have photographs of fabric that was the same on the right side and the wrong side. I kept thinking of how ai would have written the explanations and photographed it.The directions given to cut out the initial fabric for the templates were not very well explained either. Now, maybe everyone else here already knew about Ms Shore’s various television, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc channels, but I did not, and it was only when I expressed my exasperation to a friend, after I had made the green bow bag, that she told me about the plentiful YouTube videos (including one on the annoying green zipper insertion) that Ms Shore has made. I was not pleased, as she said that I could have found a link at the beginning of the book, too! Ah, well. I guess it’s my age. I am not of the IT generation, don’t expect links here,there and everywhere and have always used books to study.So, message to anyone who is struggling- have a look on YouTube for Debbie Shore ! Another thing- all the bags look about 5 times bigger than they actually are. So disappointing.I will NOT be buying another book by this woman.

Absolutely brilliant. Everything you expect from a Debbie Shore book. Great concept in a hard back folder to keep everything in one place. Can’t recommend this book enough. Great for the absolute beginner and for the more accomplished bag maker. Price is also very good for the amount you get with regards to knowledge from Debbie, templates which are easy to enlarge and it looks great on your bookshelf. Just buy it.

great bookcomes with plastic templates which are really easy to use again and again. These templates cover the designs in the bookStep by step instruction from the author Debbie with plenty of photos to enhance your learning and some tips along the way.Lots to make . Hard thing is deciding which shall I make first.

Made one of the totes bags which looked really nice and big and the final size was ridiculously small. Very disappointed because I used a lovely fabric.Tote bags supposed to be bigger and also there are not 15 totes bags since there are a couple of items that are a cosmetic bag and another type of bag. No happy at all!