Perfect Patchwork Bags – A Review

Hi! I’m Crystal of the Cloth Albatross. I was so excited when Reece asked me to review a book for C&T Publishing. The biggest problem I had was choosing which book I wanted to get. C&T has several bag making books by awesome designers. A couple of their bag making books I had already purchased (On the Go Bags, and Zakka Style), so I went with one of the newer releases – Perfect Patchwork Bags by Sue Kim.

I was unfamiliar with Sue Kim, so I was excited to find out that she’s the designer behind ithinksew patterns. She has several bag patterns that I’ve always wanted to try but for some reason haven’t purchased yet (maybe because I have way too many patterns and not enough time to make them all). After making a pattern from her book, I definitely need to add some of her bag patterns to my collection. The Demelza Backpack might be first on my list.

Perfect Patchwork Bags includes 15 projects and I was unsure which one I was going to make. I narrowed it down to the Mackenzie Messenger Bag, the Chloe Bag, or the Scarlett Clutches.

The Mackenzie Messenger Bag is my favorite style of the 3, but I ended up going with the rectangular Scarlett Clutch. I chose the clutch pattern because love triangle piecing and didn’t have the proper hardware for the Mackenzie Messenger Bag. Really, it had nothing to do with me being lazy and choosing the easier project.

The Scarlett Clutch has 2 versions – a rectangular shaped clutch and a square clutch. I went with the classic rectangular shape but the square clutch is funky and different. One thing that I really like about the Perfect Patchwork Bags is that each project has several different bags made from the pattern, including one that’s not patchwork. Sometimes it’s hard to envision what a bag looks like without the added interest of patchwork, so it’s a big plus that she included pictures and the changes that need to be made to the pattern. This particular comparison (bottom right pic) is not the best because the fabric is Echino (a Japanese fabric that already looks like it has been pieced) but you can still tell that the clutch looks great without the piecing.

One of the great things about piecework on a project is that you can use fabrics that you love but don’t have enough of for a full project. It’s something that you can use up your scrap pile with or highlight smaller aspects in fabrics that don’t stand out as much when they’re part of the larger piece of fabric. For my clutch, I chose fabrics by Rashida Coleman-Hale of Cotton + Steel. I love her style and thought that these prints from two different collections (Mooonlit and Macrame) were fun together.

I made a couple of changes to the pattern. I only pieced the flap, rather than the whole body; and I didn’t use the accent piece on the bottom of the front flap. In hindsight, I prefer the way the clutch looks with the bottom trim on the flap but when I was putting it together, I did the bottom in vinyl, so I didn’t want to have the accent trim in the same material as my clutch body. Next time I would choose a complementary accent trim. This clutch would look good with a pink accent trim. I do like having the body in vinyl because it breaks up the piecing and doesn’t make the clutch so busy but next time I’ll definitely leave the accent trim on.

The lining I chose for the clutch is also from Rashida Coleman-Hale’s Macrame collection. The Scarlett Clutch’s flap closes with a magnetic snap and its main body closes with a zipper.

For pattern books, I prefer e-books over hardcopies of books because your pattern pieces are already digitized, so you don’t have to worry about scanning them in. In some pattern books, the pattern pieces are overlapped for different patterns but in this book, they’re all separate, which I really appreciate. I did have one issue with a line being incomplete on a pattern piece but it was within the seam allowance and was easy to see where the line was supposed to go. However, I emailed C&T about the issue and they responded within an hour saying that they would fix the digital download (and they didn’t even know I was writing a book review!). I was really impressed with the fast response. I didn’t expect to hear anything back until the next day at least.

Another reason that I chose this pattern book is because I was unfamiliar with the designer. I wanted to be able to look at the patterns with fresh eyes. It’s really easy to get used to a designer’s pattern writing style and skip over confusing bits by remembering how they’ve done things in previous patterns. I was very impressed by Sue Kim’s pattern writing style. I found the patterns easy-to-follow without being drawn out. Another great thing about this book is that you can use the piecing templates for piecing on bag patterns that you’ve made before but want to give a different look to. Conversely, I think all of the patterns in this book look great without piecing, so even if you’re not into the patchwork look, you might still enjoy Perfect Patchwork Bags.

Thank you so much Crystal! I always enjoy seeing your work! 

Remember to check back tomorrow for another sewing book review. If you missed yesterday’s, you can catch up here.