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Category: Plastic Bag Crafts

Weaving a Recycled Plastic Strap

Cindy5 Comments

I needed to make a strap for my grey and pink colored recycled bag so I used a spool knitter. There are many variations of this 4-prong tool and you weave the loops around the posts by slipping the bottom existing loop off and over the new loop. You work around to each post in this manner to weave a long braided-style strap.


I love how by using the grey and then pink bags, the strap has a variegated look about it.

Here is a photo of the spool knitter I used which is made by Rugworks.

The handle is being made from recycled plastic bags made into plarn. I created a striped look for the strap handle by attaching two pink plastic bag loops together and then adding one grey loop. Then two more pink strands and one more grey and just keep repeating the process.

Recycled Plastic Diagonal Scrubbies

Cindy2 Comments

Have some produce nets that you wonder how you can recycle them? Want to reuse them in a handy and useful way? Well how about crocheting them in a useful scrubber pad.

Here are two scrubbies I crocheted using the plastic produce nets that lettuce and other veggies come in from your grocery store. Most of my produce nets are green but I have been given red, yellow, and orange colored ones from friends. The nice thing about using the recycled nets is that you don’t need but just a few to crochet a nice kitchen scrubbing pad. I crochet the nets along with cotton yarn to make a soft but firm textured surface.

You can use these scrubbers in the sink and bath tub without fear of scratching the surfaces. They also can be used on Teflon pans that have non-stick coatings as they are soft enough to not scratch the coated surfaces.

Depending on the size of scrubber pads you desire, at most you need 3 to 4 nets cut into strands for the larger scrubber shown. You join the strands together as shown in my produce net-cutting tutorial to create a recycled netting “yarn.” You then crochet the scrubbers using the netting yarn held together along with a strand of regular cotton yarn to make the scrubbies.

Okay got you hooked? Pun intend – so grab a crochet hook and check out the basic diagonal pattern below.

Japanese Knot Plarn Tote Bag

Cindy14 Comments

Japanese Knot Bags are very handy and feature two handles. One handle is shorter than the other so you can pull the longer handle through the shorter as a quick and unique closure for the bag. I thought a Japanese Knot would be a cool idea for a recycled tote bag.

I used mainly recycled grey Walmart plastic bags to crochet the tote bag with 4 blue plastic bags for the stripe. It took about 50 plastic bags cut 1 inch wide and made into plarn (plastic bag yarn) to crochet my Japanese knot tote bag. I loved how the blue really helped set off the bag to give it a nice look to an otherwise boring grey bag. Overall I am very happy with the results of my latest crocheted reusable bag.

Here is a closeup of the top with the Japanese knot used for the plastic bag tote closure.

As always, here is the free crochet pattern so everyone can crochet their own recycled Japanese knot tote bag.


Japanese Knot Plarn Tote Pattern

Hook: N (9mm) size metal crochet hook
All directions are in US crochet terms.

Description:
Bag measures 14″ wide flat across the front, 12″ tall, 9-1/2″ round bottom with one handle 10″ long and the other 15″ long.

Directions:
Ch 3 and join with a Sl St to form a ring.

Red White & Blue Plarn Basket

Cindy3 Comments

Here is my latest crocheted recycled plastic bag basket. This basket uses mainly grey Walmart plastic bags and then I added stripes of red, white and blue “plarn” to decorate it with a patriotic theme.

I used an old plastic-coated clothes hanger for the handle. I cut a piece 19 inches long and put some curved ends on the hanger so I could attach it to the sides of my crocheted basket.

Once I had the hanger attached to the inside of the basket, I used a pliers to squeeze closed the curved hooks around the top edge to secure it to the basket.

Now for the free crochet pattern details for the basket.

Being Creative Finding Colorful Plastic for Plarn

Cindy4 Comments

People frequently ask me where I find all the different colored bags for recycled bag projects. I admit it is harder to find pretty colors of plastic bags to turn into yarn or plarn as it is referred to now. Plarn is the plastic yarn made by cutting recycled plastic into strips. One tip I want to share today is that you must be creative finding colorful plastic to recycle into plarn.

One such example is this large red plastic bag that hash browns are sold in.

It is mostly a nice bright red color and can be cut into a thin strip to make plarn. Because this plastic is very thick, I cut it in one long continuous strip about 1/2 inch wide.