Judging by the cover

Simon and Thomas are in France for Thomas' rugby club tour this weekend. Phoebe is asleep. And I am in the strange new world of waiting up for my daughter to come in from a night out. I can't concentrate to read and my eyes are sore with tiredness after a long day which began at 4am with me taking Thomas and Simon to the club to get their coach. So I thought I'd do something useful and share some of the Japanese books I have bought solely because I liked their covers (and I did think they may contain some gems).

This is Umami ISBN 4579109856. It has some wonderfully tasteful and simple ideas, beautifully executed:

like this bag with inserts,

 

or this textile version of a coiled bag,

 

and a lovely bag with hundreds of seed stitches which I particularly like.

This is Hand Made Bag ISBN 4579107926 and this one uses six basic bag shapes plus beads, spangles, ribbon, cord and applique to embellish (and it has paper patterns included):

I'm a sucker for charming applique like this,

and I would love to own this, so will have to get my mind round making it as I don't know anyone else who would be willing to...

Point ISBN 4277311482 has some amazingly creative but simple graphic embroidery ideas.

and great pincushions.

 

I suppose anyone could pretend they lived in a chateau like this.

Charming Bag ISBN 457910945 won me over with its use of felt & colour,

but the bag looks almost too lovely to use.

And now I can go and watch the clock until Alice is safe, sound and tucked up in bed.

Comments

[Jennifer]

My word, those are some beautiful bags!

[Sally]

Thanks for sharing Jane - where do you order them from?

Hope by now that Alice is back in Wonderland, safe and sound. I'm a real sook with my kids - they aren't old enough yet to go out really late - though somebody once told me that a mother has two great gifts to give her children - roots and wings.

xx

[Jess]

Thanks for sharing - where did you get them? order them from? Would love to know.

[Jane]

I buy from Amazon Japan or YesAsia. My next post has more details.

[Cassi]

I really like "Point" also. Lots of great inspiration and photographs!

[Siow Chin]

I do love the bag with a lot of seed stitches too. Sometimes, I use Babelfish to translate the amazon.jp page and try to get an idea what they're talking about but judging a book by its cover is a lot more fun.

[julia fc]

I am dizzy with desire. Can't wait for your next post for aquisition instructions!

[Stefanie]

Do you speak/ read Japanese? Or do those books come with English translation? You did pick some beautiful gems!

[i Neat & Pearl]

i LOVE handmade bags...thanks for posting the books...gotta go get them!! ^-^