STYLE DIY: Chanel Cabas Bag

May 17, 2007 by Morgan  Send to a Friend

DIY: chanel coco cabas bag

Do It With: 2 heavy-duty black trashbags, 4.5 ft. of lightweight silver-colored chain (home depot has some that’s perfect for .28/ft.), black electrical tape, paper towels, scissors, straight pins, a sharpie, measuring tape, a sewing machine, a flat work surface, 1.5 hours of your time. **optional: 2 sandwich bags.**

Do It Why? chanel’s vinyl coco cabas bag looks exactly like a hefty bag, but that didn’t stop me or anyone else from coveting it this spring. since neither you nor i are going to pay $1000 for it (or the $275/month it’ll cost to bag, borrow or steal it), it seems the only option is to make one ourselves. out of actual trashbags.

Is Karl Lagerfeld going to kill me? i like to think he has a sense of humor. and come on - no one is going to think this is a REAL chanel bag, but they are going to think it’s REAL AWESOME. also, people have appropriated the chanel logo for worse.

Difficulty Level: on a scale of 1-5 (1 meaning you could do it at craft night [read: while drinking], 5 meaning you should probably block off your saturday), this is about a 3.5. the most irritating part is fitting the chain in the top of the bag, and the most time-consuming is pinning and sewing in the logo.

Cost: assuming you’ve got most of the necessary items at home already (we’ll call that $0.00) , you’ll just need to make a quick trip to home depot for electrical tape ($1.47) and lightweight ‘double loop zinc-plated’ chain at .28/ft ($1. 26). with tax, this project will set you back about $3.

DO IT, YOUNG THINGS:

1. with both bags still folded, trim them to 23 inches tall. don’t worry about being ultra-precise - just make sure the two bags are about the same. set aside one of the tops for later.

2. fit one bag inside of the other and secure at the bottom corners with straight pins.

3. fold the bags (well, now it’s one bag) in half, lengthwise, and cut out a 1/4 circle. the bottom-most part of the circle should hit about 5 inches from the top. when you open it up, it should look like picture 3b.

4a. freehand (if you’re crazy) or trace the logo onto the center of one side of the bag with your sharpie. i went to the chanel website and traced it, scanned it in and blew it up 250%. i’m sure there’s an easier way to do it; i clearly took too long because when i came back this was happening.

4b. slide 3 layers of paper towels (otherwise known as INTERFACING) underneath the logo, between the first and second layers of trashbag. make sure you’ve used enough paper towels to completely span the logo - measure it out on top first. it’s totally okay to overlap them in the middle, and you should have a couple of inches to spare at the edges.

4c. pin the top two layers of trashbag around the paper towels.

4d. using the sewing machine, follow the sharpie lines and sew the logo in!

4e. admire your handiwork. you tight.

5a. back at your workspace, flip the bag over to the logo-less side. on top of the bag, measure out 3 rows of 3 layers of paper towel interfacing. slip them between the two trashbag layers of that side of the bag and…

5b. pin a stright line, top to bottom, at the 2 points of overlap.

5c. run stitches down these lines with the sewing machine, making sure to leave an inch or so at the top of the bag.

6. ALMOST DONE. take the scrap trashbag, still folded, that you set aside in the first step. cut a 1 inch strip. when you unfold it you’ll have a big loop - snip it so you’ve got a long ribbon. tie one end to the first chain link, and weave it through, over-under-over-under, until you reach the end. tie it off.

7. cut another 1 inch strip from the scrap - this one only has to be about 6 inches long. connect the chain securely with the strip, tying end to end, to form a loop.

8. trim any exposed paper towels.

9. remove the straight pins from the corners and turn the bag inside out. fold the top 2 inches of the raised sides of the bag ONLY (ignoring the half-circle you cut out earlier) over the chain and secure it with electrical tape. you’re only taping the bag to itself - the chain should be able to move freely around in the little tunnel you’ve made for it. when you’re all done, use the sewing machine to secure it in the same way, just a little bit tighter. you want it to be somewhat snug, but again, you should still be able to move the chain around.

10a. at this point you’ll notice the bag is dunzo, with the exception of the still-open edges of the half circle you cut out earlier. use 1 inch pieces of electrical tape, folded over the top, to close it up.

10b. flip the bag over and fold up the corners. electrical tape them down and you are GOOD to GO.

**optional** if you HATE having to search around for your phone or camera, electrical tape open sandwich bags to the inside walls of the bag.

you are now the proud owner of an awesomely fake, totally waterproof, chanel coco cabas bag. i wouldn’t use it to lug groceries home in (see holly’s suggestion for a non-plastic alternative), but it’s totally sturdy and perfect for taking all (literally ALL) your stuff to the beach or out for the night. if you happen to snag it or it should befall some other sort of misery, remember that the electrical tape is totally invisible and makes a perfect band-aid. and when you’re tired of it, it’ll make the classiest garbage can ever. i added a fake chanel charm to mine that i scored at a thrift store a couple of years ago and spray-painted silver for the occasion - i think it adds a CERTAIN SOMETHING. you could make your own out of paper clips, or a hanger, or…you know what, that’s a whole other DIY in itself. i wish you luck and speed with this one, and i’ll see you next week. love, morgan.

click to enlarge the pictures.

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