my quilt instructor told me that if you take a pattern you like and want to make your own spin on it, you need to change it by at least 30% from the original...then it becomes your own. Sometimes when I find a purse or bag pattern I like, the instructions can be horrible. I showed her how I had to rewrite the instructions (for myself) then end up making a lot of changes to the pattern, she said it's now my pattern because of the amount of changes made. The bag looks similar but quite a bit different from the original. Not sure if this helps or not but thought I'd pass this along.