Handmade Chic by Laura Bennett

Description:

In Handmade Chic, Laura shares simple strategies for creating 40 small luxuries and high-fashion
accessories, from a smart leather iPad portfolio to a feather-embellished evening bag. With sections
organized in skill-building order and based on type of accessory—small leather goods, agendas and notepads, electronics, bags and wallets, and evening items—Laura offers patterns, easy-to-follow diagrams, and detailed instructions for fabricating each glamorous project, whether it involves sewing from scratch or embellishing a prepurchased garment. While showcasing her own creative designs, she provides readers with the basic techniques and encouragement they need to come up with variations and create their own signature pieces. 

Packed with Laura’s signature flair and finesse, vibrant four-color photos, step-by-step drawings, and a complete list of suggestions on where to purchase materials, Handmade Chic is an accessible guide to at-home crafting that is elegant enough for the most modern, fashion-savvy of women.

 Despite the fact the subtitle is a bit insulting to handmade crafts, I was curious. Plus, some people do not like handmade crafts so I was wondering if this would be the book for them. Really all it is about is choosing higher end materials. Makes sense since materials can make the difference in anything that you make. HOWEVER, I think that you could still make things in this book without breaking the bank. Finding goods at Goodwill or things that just don't fit anymore could become material for things in this book. I can see scraps and refashioned products in any of her projects.

There were projects I can see people who read book blogs really liking. For example, there was a book cover made out of leather. This would be not for a general size of book (like mass market) but for a book you are wanting to preserve with a hearty cover.

You could easily buy scraps from leather craft stores.

There are also covers for ereaders. Specifically in this book there are dimensions and specifics for Kindle and iPad. 

I do have to warn people who simply hate crafting in fur. The author does use real fur, but if that doesn't bother you, just use faux fur. Honestly, I think it would be easier to deal with anyway. You could make not so costly mistakes that way.

I give this book 3 stars which are all for the type of projects within the book and not the writing. In other words, very interesting projects, but not so interesting that I can ignore the barbs to crafting which I always think should be fun! Being so uptight about your projects kind of takes away that fun for me.

I was given this ebook by NetGalley and the publisher and no compensation for my review was given.