The zipper side tote is lesson 10, there is a reason it’s number 10 – because there are 9 classes before it that teach you how to make a tab. All these classes are part of a course, they build on each other. As for the hardware, I can’t teach you how to make a tab for each piece of hardware, each piece is different and requires a different setting. Some you squeeze, some you set into, others or attached with two prongs. That’s why if you don’t understand lesson 3 which teaches you how to make a flap, you won’t understand how to design a tab for your hardware.
In the first lesson new students need to make a bag, so they get the easy one a T-bottom tote. you learn the bag and straps. Then the new student says to themselves “wow I can do that”! T bottom is the gusset and bottom combined, it is the base for hundreds of styles.
In the second lesson, with a little help you add pockets and a recessed collar with a zipper, but now you are forced to think, you have to fit it.Like any school, you are given the information, but the instructor wants to know can you build on the information you are given, can you elaborate on it. In that elaboration the instructor can tell if you really learned how to use the information.
The 3rd lesson you learn a new gusset. At this point you now know how to add pockets inside and out and now I teach you to make the flap. Once you add the flap you have a different style bag. A flap is a tab, the thought process is the same.
Each class builds on the previous, but most of all it gives you the basics to solve problems. The problem solving is the key to understanding, why you are doing what you are doing.
A clutch is a messenger bag without handles, A handbag is a messenger bag where the handle placement is different. Handle placement and size make up different styles of bags. Each style of bag has a relationship to each other.
The goal is to force a student to learn, not simply copy what I do but to take what you saw in the videos and say “if I can make a flap, I can make a tab” the differences is the size and shape.
