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Recycled Denim Baby Bibs

Cindy11 Comments

This month over at the Trash to Treasures group on Ravelry we are having a fabric and clothing scraps challenge. So I broke out some old jeans I have been saving and recycled them into some baby bibs.

The first bib is larger and I used the trimmed side seams from a pair of jeans for the bib ties. This bib is more suitable for an older baby or toddler.


My next bib is smaller and features ribbon for the ties. I thought the ribbon would be gentler for a younger baby’s skin than the denim ties.

Below you will find a picture tutorial showing how I made each of these recycled denim heart bibs.

Plastic Trash Rug

Cindy30 Comments

This crocheted rug has been a work in progress for quite some time. I’m happy to say its done — Yea! It is completely crocheted from plastic trash. I used recycled bags from bread, hotdog buns, bagels, toilet paper, frozen foods, hashbrowns, paper towel packaging, hamburger buns, taco shells, hoagie buns, and other pieces of plastic from numerous products having plastic packaging. This plastic is the heavier gauge stuff and it’s much harder to crochet and does make your hands and joints sore.

Because this plastic was much heavier than the normal thin plastic grocery bags, I cut the strips only about 1/2 inch wide. I cut the plastic into strips using my standard plarn making method to assemble the plastic strips.

I crocheted it all using single crochet stitches as this is a bit easier on the hands. A word of advice though, take lots of breaks from this project as it will help your hands and joints from getting too sore. Also if your rug doesn’t want to lay down flat, apply some gentle heat from a blow dryer, and flatten out your rug as you warm up the plastic. This really helped as my rug wanted to curl up a bit but with the heat from the dry blower, I was able to get my rug to lay down fairly flat.

Below you will find the general directions for crocheting this recycled plastic rug. Please be aware that this pattern is just a loose guideline for making your own unique rug using recycled plastic. You may need to add a few more stitches here and there so your ends lay down flat. I re-worked several rounds at times as the rug just didn’t want to lay down very flat. But remember the dry blower tip and try this out if needed. With that being said, enjoy the project and happy crocheting!

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Recycled Plastic Oval Rug Pattern

Materials needed:

Plastic bread bags and any other plastic packaging that you can cut into loops 1/2 inch wide
to create plastic bag yarn or plarn.

Hook:
N (9 mm) USA size crochet hook

Description:
Recycled plastic oval rug measures 16 inches wide and 30 inches long

Directions:
Ch 36 (approx. 14 inches)

Green Easter Basket

Cindy11 Comments

My Easter basket project this year uses the bottom of a laundry soap bottle and plastic bags. I cut the bottom off a plastic soap bottle and used it as a base for my Easter basket. I then crocheted around the base and up with recycled plastic bags or plarn.

The pink bunny was crocheted using AmiAmour’s free crochet pattern found here. This is my first official ami animal and while I’m not going into the ami making business, I was pleased with the outcome of my Easter bunny.

Oh and I used cut up plarn for the grass in my Easter basket. That way it can be recycled after the holidays into another project. Happy Easter!

Free Pattern for Recycled Plastic Easter Basket

Materials needed:
Plastic bags cut into 3/4″ strips of white bags (3-4 bags)
And approx. 4-5 bags of green and yellow plastic bags
1) Plastic handle from a soap box or other plastic strap
1) Plastic laundry soap base cut from bottle
Metal punch and hammer for making holes in plastic base

Hooks: H (5 mm) US sized metal hook
and J ( 6 mm) US size crochet hook
Small Steel crochet hook for first round on base

Description: Recycled Plastic Easter Basket
Basket measures 7″ wide and 4-1/4″ tall with 20″ handle strap
at base 6″ wide and 3″ across.

Directions:
Using the base cut from a laundry soap bottle (mine was 6″ long and 3″ wide), punch holes around the base as shown in the photo. I used a metal punch and a hammer to put my holes in the plastic base.

Charity Baby Afghans

Cindy7 Comments

Here are my two latest baby afghans that I crocheted for the NICU Baby Blanket drive. The first is a round ripple afghan that I crocheted using reclaimed yarn from a thrift store sweater. The white cotton yarn was from a thrift store yarn cone I picked up.

Here is a before picture of the sweater and then a picture of one of the balls of reclaimed yarn I got from unraveling this thrift store sweater. My baby RR measures 36 inches across and I still have leftover yarn from the unraveled sweater for another project. I found reclaiming the yarn from this old cotton sweater fairly easy and very rewarding to create something new and useful.

Next is a starghan baby blanket I crocheted using some worst yarn from my stash. I had some issues with this pattern and it does not lay completely flat but still turned out okay.

Both of these blankets will be making they way to Kathryn who heads up the charity drive for the 4th Annual Baby Blanket Drive at her local hospital. It was a joy to crochet these blankets for the sweet little babies and I hope they bring comfort to the little ones and their families.