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'Aint no Saint' Home
Hi there,
Welcome to 'Aint no Saint' the website that offers you the opportunity to attend 'Bag School', take up Pilates or simply order a gorgeous Handmade Handbag!
That may seem an unusual and somewhat ecclectic mix of activities but they are all creative, engage your mind with your body and are fun to do!
 Aint no Saint's 'Summer Bag School One Week Intensive' Starts on monday 23rd July 2012
***Limited Spaces***
'I believe that pattern cutting is for bags what architectural plans are for buildings. There would be no point in having a beautiful design for a building if it could never technically be built to look that good. Therefore a beautiful handbag design is only as good as the pattern it was cut from'.
An excerpt from Leather Handbag Making -
By Sally Nicholls
Please scroll down to view the whole article
  .jpg) .jpg) Aint no Saint 'Bag School' Leather Handbag Making Courses On these technical courses, the Tutor will help you develop the design for your bag, teach you how to cut a professional pattern and construct it using professional industry methods using your own domestic sewing machine.
Aint no Saint 'Bag School' Term-Time Open Project Leather Workshops
These workshops are designed to get you started on a project of your own choosing, whether it's making a bag, a belt or other accessory; converting a dress pattern from being made in fabric to leather, making leather home furnishings....the possibilities are endless.
Aint no Saint 'Bag School' Leather Bag/Accessory Making Workshops
These workshops are not designed to teach you the technical side of pattern cutting, but to enable you to reproduce a more simple leather item using really interesting construction methods from an idea or actual pattern template designed by the Tutor. They run over a half day, full day or 2 days. Aint no Saint Pilates body design offers you intelligent, enjoyable and effective Matwork Pilates Classes that will change the way your body looks and functions. The focus is on learning correct technique when engaging the core and proper spinal alignment to support the body weight when performing the complex exercises. The results are a stronger, leaner and more flexible body.
The Aint no Saint Collection is a constantly evolving range of gorgeous handmade handbags and accessories in leather, textile and yarn; including the 'Utility' range made with the exclusive printed fabric depicting the 'Flying Ninjas' characters. Design pieces range from the most perfect leather clutch bag, to slouchy everyday bag, through to luxurious leather and velvet cushions.
Sally is a qualified fitness professional having taught fitness for 21 years with the last 12 focussing on teaching Pilates.
She also trained at Cordwainers - London College of Fashion specialising in handmade leather handbags and accessories. Her inspiration for setting up the 'Bag School' Leather Handbag Making Courses was sparked from her love of sewing and her passion for teaching; and to show how beautifully crafted things can be professionally produced in a domestic setting.
Leather Handbag Making - Why The Pattern Cutting Could Be The Most Important Part
Author: Sally Nicholls
Every part of making a leather handbag has its fun and challenges. From the research necessary for creating a unique design to the final stages of making up where that top stitching has to be so perfect. But in the midst of all that flurry of creativity is the technical wizardry that is the pattern cutting. Some people find this the most boring and laborious part, but for me that is the most exciting bit, because when I have made my final pattern after much experimentation and trial and error thru many mock ups, I know that my design is definitely going to work with every single pattern piece fitting exactly with the next so much so, that I can get a 3 dimensional image in my head of exactly how the bag will look at every stage of its construction and how it will look when it's finished; in other words it's as good as done!
Of course there might be the odd little problem along the way with the making up on the sewing machine, but that's another story!
Another reason why the pattern cutting could be the most important part is that an accurate pattern is worth its weight in gold, as I mentioned before in my opinion, a good pattern is a handbag as good as made, but only if it is absolutely accurate. An accurate pattern means that a successful design can be reproduced over and over again. And that successful design could then be adapted to create new bags of similar construction but which look quite different to the original. This could then mean that someone who has learnt to produce handbags using one type of construction method would be able to make a whole range of handbags from just one perfectly cut original pattern.
I believe pattern cutting is key in understanding how something works and is a necessary skill required for developing good handbag design. It is wonderful to have a head full of incredible handbag design ideas but they will never be realised unless they are technically able to be achieved. You could argue that that would surely be ironed out in the mock up stage, and that the whole reason for making mock ups is to 1) be creative and 2) to sort out how and if something can be constructed, and yes that is true. But there is something else that is very important that can make or break the desirability of what is supposed to be a much yearned for and cherished product. And that something else is the standard of the finish.
A newly purchased handbag will be scrutinised inside and outside. It will be caressed, smelt, hugged and put in pride of place. But actually this would only happen if it was also beautifully made. So now you could say that that would be down to the skill of the person sewing it up, and yes I would agree; but if the design made the making up difficult because the pattern wasn't skilfully enough produced for design complications to be allowed for, then no amount of sewing skill will save the product from being a contorted disaster.
I believe that pattern cutting is for bag making what architectural plans are for buildings. There would be no point in having a beautiful design for a building if it could never technically be built to look that good. Therefore a beautiful handbag design is only as good as the pattern that it was cut from.
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