craftgrrl | a little info needed, please

Okie, so I've had a sewing machine for years...it's a nice little Brother from Walmart that my mother got me for my birthday one year. The problem there being is that I don't know how to sew...at all. I mean. I've kinda fooled around a bit with some things but that's about it. So, I was wondering if there was any books out there that were especially helpful for those of us who need to see in order to know what to do. I mean, I really can't just read and be like, 'oh, I know how to do that now.' I really need some visuals. So if anyone knows any really good books, that'd be wonderful if you could let me know what they are! If it helps, I'm looking to start making purses/messenger bags/laptop bags, etc for myself and my friends.

and just to prove how teh suck I am at this...

please excuse the really horrible picture, but as you can see there are parts of the patches that didn't come together correctly even though I used pins to put them into place. My mom thinks that my stitches were too small but she knows as much about sewing as I do. I really don't know much about sewing machines. i dunno what tension is or anything like that. If I knew where to take a class I would. Yeah...so any help is greatly appreciated.