Woven Leather Bags

Sewing leather bags usually involves specialized needles and a heavy-duty machine, or alternatively a bunch of dedicated tools for hand-sewing seams in stiff leather. This book skips the sewing altogether in favor of weaving techniques using pre-cut leather or faux leather strips. The methods use one or both sides of the strips to create textural patterns in different shapes. The designs using different widths of contrasting colors are particularly effective for easy weaving of attractive patterns. The instructions are clear, and the methods as well as the finished products are well-illustrated. The book includes patterns for a variety of bag types differing in shape, size, and closing hardware. I wish that more of them had flat bottoms, as most of these patterns are for bags that are more two-dimensional, envelope-like shapes when empty. A more three-dimensional bag is usually more practical in real life use.
The nifty closed-end braiding technique shown for making straps is topologically clever.
I look forward to trying the techniques from this book and customizing a number of these designs.

I never thought to use leather to weave projects. Very nice book with lots of photos so you can see step by step as you make the projects. My favorite are the kiss clasp bags. I highly recommend this book for all bag makers and leather workers. Thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the the free digital copy of this book.

5 Stars!! Love all the helpful pictures! The instructions were clear & easy to follow with multiple pictures for easy to understand directions. I haven’t tried any of the projects with leather yet but it all turned out pretty good with paper & I can’t wait to start a project with leather! If you’re a crafty person, I’d recommend you check this book out! This book has tons of different projects & variations! It explained everything you could possibly need to know! This was really a great craft book! I highly recommend it!
*I received this book at no charge from the publisher.*

Woven Leather Bags is a new niche leather-working technique tutorial guide from Naoko Minowa. With an expected release date in early February 2019, from Stackpole Books, it's a concise 104 pages in full color and available in paperback and ebook formats.

Despite being a bionerd lab rat and, frankly, not very girly, I have always loved well made purses and bags (shoes, not so much). There is something about woven leather that I find really attractive. I have longed for a real Bottega Veneta bag for ages, but even their 'entry level' bags cost more than my first car. It's not going to happen anytime soon.

The projects included in these tutorials admittedly aren't BV bags, but they are very stylish, high quality and style correct. The detailing is very well done and the hardware enhances the designs. The construction details are well described and illustrated and these are no-sew tutorials. The woven leather ground fabric is manipulated and shaped by using cold riveting, glues, metal snaps, magnetic closures etc. All of the construction and finishing techniques are included in the book.

There are (by my count) 15 distinct projects in the book which can be varied and combined somewhat with different weaves and colorways. The project pages cover roughly 20% of the page content. The projects are followed by very detailed instructions which cover tools and materials, weaving techniques, and finishing techniques. There is also a handy resource page at the end listing North America friendly e-tailers from whom tools and materials can be bought.

This book was originally published in 2014 in Japanese and it's worth noting that the translation work was seamless. It doesn't feel like a translated book.

Five stars. Lovely projects

amazing, il oved it. I Don't know how much i will be able to do it and what it will look like… but very good work, clear and made by someone passionate about their work.

Wonderfully illustrated with step by step photos on how to make 17 woven leather bags. The projects are easy enough for beginners to follow and the majority of them require very little sewing. The only thing I didn't like about the book was how similar the bag projects were to one another. They were all in the envelope style - flat and 2 dimensional looking. I assume introducing bags with a flat bottom will make for a more technically advance book so the author might have chosen not to introduce these type of bags. Overall I would recommend this book. The technical instructions are well done and I also like that the book covered braiding, tassel making, and weave variations. My favorite bags in the book are the Envelope Clutch and The Library Tote.
I was given an ARC through Net Galley for an honest review.

Too difficult for me to understand or attempt to do - it is a professional book but the expenditure of making a single bag seems too much (apart from the fact that the basic 'top-right' weaving went through my head) to attempt to make one.

But thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

What fun! A great leather book on making woven bags which was a perfect way to unwind after a long day at work. The books pretty creative and has the added bonus of great photos which I enjoy. Pretty easy instructions and the final product is gorgous. I have to say I'm debating mixing in other fabrics besides leather such as silk or wool to give a luxury finish as work in the fashion industry, but overall great concept book.