I crocheted a Miu Miu bag by hand
& this is what I learned
For the past 6 months I have been deep in my fiber arts practice. I learned how to sew by hand and machine at a very early age thanks to a sewing teacher mother, and picked up knitting around 8? 10? My active interest in these art forms have come and gone in phases through my life, but in December 2023 I decided to pick up my knitting needles again to create some of the trends I was spotting. And I fell back into the craft hard. After two decades of having knitting knowledge, I finally knitted a sweater and was so proud to take some of my creations along with me to Paris Fashion Week.
As warmer weather loomed ahead, in March I decided it was time to learn knitting’s cousin: crochet. I consumed tutorial after tutorial on YouTube to pick up the basics and I started with some baskets with questionable construction. After fixing my mistakes, I moved on to granny squares and accessories, eventually graduating to full garments.
Fast forward to last week, I saw designer bygalk crochet her version the viral Miu Miu crochet pouch handbag. Needless to say, it was all I could think about for the entire Memorial Day weekend. Miu Miu is one of the hottest brands at the moment, and this style of bag is heavily sought out for summer. I wasn’t about to spend $1,390 on the actual thing, but luckily I had a whole bag of thrifted cotton yarns I have no idea what I was going to do with. So after watching a few more YouTube tutorials, I dove into the endeavour.
I documented my process of making the bag over on Instagram if you’d like to see that. Between planning, designing, and actually making, I completed the project over the course of three days. I was not trying to create an exact knock off of the Miu Miu bag, but an inspired piece with my own aesthetic choices. And I think she turned out pretty cute! Now let’s talk about what I learned about crochet and bag making.
What I learned
First and foremost: crochet can only done by hand. While knitting and many other textiles can be done by machine, there are no machines that can create crochet. I already knew this, but this project really enforced this for me. There are no shortcuts! Let this also be a reminder for you that the next time you see crochet in stores (real crochet, not knitting designed to look like crochet), it was created entirely by hand by a real person.
And by extension: Crochet is expensive for a reason. We may baulk at a $1,390 price tag for a bag made of cotton yarn, but the human labor required adds so much more cost beyond the price of materials. This is also why we should be suspicious of crochet pieces sold by fast fashion companies mostly likely exploiting labor.
Creating a random color pattern is not actually random. I ended up spending a lot of brain power coordinating what order I crocheted the colors in and undoing stitches to make it look “random” and scrappy.
A bag lining is incredibly important. At first I was going to leave the bag unlined, but as soon as I put my phone in the bag, the double crochet stitches started stretching. So I unearthed my bag of fabric from a closet and hand sewed in a lining, which instantly improved the structural integrity of the bag and made the design look more “store bought” IMO.
It’s ok for the first (or even second) version of something new not to be perfect. Especially being fairly new to crochet, it was important for me to remember this. My first attempt at this bag was abandoned halfway through - I realized I was using the wrong stitch, and I was also doing the joining in the round incorrectly. While I am happy with the results of my second attempt, there are definitely a few elements I would improve if I were to make the bag again. It’s all a learning process, let’s embrace it!
Let me know what you think, how did I do? Would you ever try to recreate a designer bag by hand?
Thanks for reading!
Karya