Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I admire the author for wanting to share this information. It is very obvious she is passionate about purses! Gotta love that! :) However, the other aspects of this book were disappointing. I DID spend a lot of money at Kinko's enlarging the patterns per the books instructions--1st off, I actually spent MORE money at Kinko's than I did on this book! I was annoyed that Full Size patterns weren't included--it is expensive to have them enlarged to the proper size and even worse to try to do it at home on a regular printer!--even if you did try to do it on a regular printer, there are no grid-marks or guidle ines to line up the multitude of pages you would need to print to enlarge them--and now that I know they have to be 400%--most home printers don't enlarge that high! But nonetheless, I dropped the 5 patterns I wanted enlarged off at Kinkos and left--came back to $3.29 copies EACH and knew immediately that they were WRONG! I was *Steaming!!* mad--But worse-- I feel bad for anyone who would not realize this and then go through the process of trying to use these 200% copies to actually construct something! I am a little perplexed about why full-size patterns were not included ??? You can get them now in Magazines so it surely does not make sense why this book would not have them included. The written instructions in the book are also not good--I don't think the author actually wrote the project construction instructions so I can't fault her for that- but I wish she would have had several people USE these written instructions and edited before putting them in this book. I have designed my own purses and am a sewer --so have read many instructions for a multitude of things from bags & purses to clothes & housewares and these instructions are some of the worst I've read. I make bags without patterns and can figure it out without the instructions (and I stopped reading them because they verbiage is off and does not make sense in parts), but if you have never sewed or are a newbie--this may be troublesome for you. You may think you don't have what it takes or that you can't read a pattern--but please know that most directions are not written this badly! There was no new information in this book that I had not heard, learned or read before just a repeat of previous books I've read or classes I've taken. The concept of this book is a wonderful idea and as mentioned I do admire the authors passion for purses! If you are wanting to learn some info--it may be semi-helpful. But if you are trying to make a bag--save your money!