-Coco Chanel
I have finished - okay, I could clean it up a bit - but basically it's done - my Counterfeit Crochet Chanel bag....
This was a learning experience in crochet. First, the source article on Counterfeit Crochet did not come with a pattern per se, merely guidelines for construction. After obsessing on the stitch, and asking for help, (asking is hard for me) now it seems that I keep finding this particular stitch everywhere (new magazine, free online pattern, link in an email to a poncho) ... so I may be working it even more. It is called "crazy stitch" hahaha! and it seems to be calling to me. 
Body of the bag is worked in that stitch in cheapy acrylic for ultimate debasement; the sides in single crochet, and the front flap in single with a double crochet border. The logo is in a silvery yarn, double crochet on a chain - with 2 doubles in a chain every 5 chains or so, to give the "C" the curve.
The strap is made with 2 strands of the black acrylic and one strand of some leftover yarn I had - it is a black silvery fluffy mess from Moda Dea I think - all held together and worked into a simple chain. The silver works well like this; the original pattern I saw had a full strand of contrast yarn woven through...I improvised and it worked out okay.
The 'grommets' are made in a silver thread just making a chain, connecting it, and a row of single crochet over the circle. The thread is stiff and hard to finish off however...I may need to 'cheat' and use fabric glue to keep them from unraveling. Ain't no shame in my game!
Again, in all it's splendor: 
I brought it to work one day last week to work on the buttons... all the girls in the office were up in my face, "yo, that is HOT, how much you want to make ME one?" I explained that it is a pattern with flaws and I should really improve on before profiting from, but they could not be swayed. They don't seem to care that I don't have any idea how to line this bag so that keys and lipsticks and of course crochet hooks won't slip out.
They want it anyway... cause look how fabulous this bag makes my rumpus look! 
Even more fabulous: I mustered up the courage to email the Counterfeit Crochet Project and comment on the work. I mentioned that I want to now make a Coach, a YSL hobo, or a LV Murakami barrel bag...and I bravely attached a pic copy of my Chanel bag for her to check out.She (Stephanie of Anti-Factory.com) emailed me back and asked if I would participate in a group show she's planning on showing in Beijing in April...and could I part with my bag for a month? It, along with others made by crocheters, would be on display for about a month, and then returned to me. OMG omg OMG! Of course, you can take it! Now I really have to weave in those ends, haha!If I don't chicken out, my piece will be in a show! I'm an artist, holy shit!Bonus round: Does anyone remember the commercial from YEAAAARS ago, it was a Chanel commercial...where a woman stood near a pool, maybe she jumped in, I can't remember...what I do remember is the music..."I don't want to set the world on fire..." It is by the Ink Spots, and it is ethereal. I'll have to do some searching for that commercial. I think that was what made me become so enamoured of Chanel in the first place. Talk about effective advertising. I wanted Chanel for years before I could dare wear it. The, I wore it for years, but the scent doesn't work for me anymore. Still, I love it.
And lastly, here are some quotes I found attributed to Ms Fabulous herself, Coco Chanel:
I love myself.
Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman. Fashion passes, style remains.
Fashion is not simply a matter of clothes. Fashion is in the air, born upon the wind. One intuits it. It is in the sky and on the road.
In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different. The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
As long as you know men are like children, you know everything. Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.
How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone. Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.
The best color in the whole world, is the one that looks good, on you. A women who doesn't wear perfume has no future.
Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future. A woman is closest to being naked when she is well dressed.
If a man talks bad about all women, it usually means he was burned by one woman. I don't understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little - if only out of politeness.
And then, you never know, maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny. And it's best to be as pretty as possible for destiny. There goes a woman who knows all the things that can be taught and none of the things that cannot be taught.
Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury. There is time for work, and time for love. That leaves no other time.
There are people who have money and people who are rich. I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.
Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress. Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.
Fashion is made to become unfashionable. Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.
Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger. My friends, there are no friends.
Great loves too must be endured. A style does not go out of style as long as it adapts itself to its period.
When there is an incompatibility between the style and a certain state of mind, it is never the style that triumphs. Elegance is refusal.
Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them. I love luxury. And luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity.
Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language. I stay in the game to fight it.
Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress. Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it.
Passion goes, boredom remains.
Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity. It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure. I don't know why women want any of the things men have when one the things that women have is men.
A woman has the age she deserves. Innovation! One cannot be forever innovating. I want to create classics.
Why am I so determined to put the shoulder where it belongs? Women have very round shoulders that push forward slightly; this touches me and I say: 'One must not hide that!' Then someone tells you: 'The shoulder is on the back'. I have never seen women with shoulders on their backs. When I can no longer create anything, I'll be done for.
Material things aside, we need no advice but approval. Youth is something very new: twenty years ago no one mentioned it. Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.
I was the one who changed, it wasn't fashion. I was the one who was in fashion. A fashion that does not reach the streets is not a fashion.
Scheherezade is easy; a little black dress is difficult. In fashion, you know you have succeeded when there is an element of upset.
I've never done anything by halves.
