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Tag: free patterns

Crafting with Plastic Bags

Cindy9 Comments

It has been over six years now since I started this recycled bags blog. When I first started out I wanted to share the idea of using plastic bags for craft projects. I wanted to promote the reuse and repurposing of plastic for useful items. Over the years, I have crocheted tote bags, rugs, scrubbies, purses, baby bibs, soap dishes, coasters, baskets, gift bags, water bottle holders and much more using recycled plastic.

You can find all of my crochet free plastic bag patterns here at my site. Over the years I have shared all my patterns free so that everyone could enjoy crafting with recycled plastic materials. I have used every type of recycled plastic such as retails bags, toilet paper packaging, hotdog and hamburger bun packages, frozen vegetable packages, paper towel packaging, bread bags, hashbrown bags, and taco shell bags.


Trash Rug from Recycled Plastic

Recycling plastic to create yarn has endless possibilities. I only named a handful of plastic items you can make plarn from. Plarn (PLastic yARN) is the term my friend Joy coined first over at Crochetville

Valentine Themed Projects

Cindy1 Comment

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I thought it might be fun to share some Valentine themed craft projects that I have been working on. Last month I participated in a cabled heart crochet along and here are the two heart squares I made.


The 12 inch crocheted cabled hearts square features 4 hearts.


This 6 inch cabled heart square pattern features just a single heart.

I just loved the 12 inch Yarncrazy Cabled Hearts Pattern (not available anymore) and thought it would make a wonderful center for a crocheted baby blanket. So I used the large square and then proceeded to double crochet around it to create this baby afghan.

Here are a few Valentine heart bookmarks I crocheted.

My New Pattern Page

Cindy5 Comments

It is with great pleasure that I present to you my new and improved pattern page here at My Recycled Bags. With the help of my son, we have updated the old page with a thumbnail photo of each project and tutorial for easier access. The page is laid out by categories and materials now so you can quickly navigate the list of projects that you may be in search of.

It was fun and interesting as I went back over the nearly 5 years of patterns and posts that I have created here at my blog. I had forgotten about some of the older less used patterns as well as re-visiting the early creations I made with recycled materials.

So without further ado here is My Pattern Links page. I hope you enjoy using it and find it easier to locate my many different patterns that I provide free here at My Recycled Bags.

Happy Easter

Cindy4 Comments


With Easter just around the corner, I thought I post some of the recycled Easter baskets that I have crafted in past years. So if you are looking for recycled Easter basket projects, let me share a few links of free patterns with you. This cute green Easter basket was made from a recycled plastic soap base and then I crocheted the top using plastic bags.


Maybe you need something a little smaller, if so check out this mini plarn Easter egg basket. It’s a real quick and easy pattern. Also it only takes about 3 to 4 plastic bags made into plarn to crochet.


Should you need a large Easter basket, here is my big recycled Easter basket that I crocheted from some purple plastic bags that you were given to me several years ago. To this day, I’ve never seen bags this color again and was so fortunate to be given them by a reader of this blog.

I hope you enjoyed this little parade of recycled Easter baskets that I have crocheted. Happy Easter Everyone!

Dishcloths and Plastic Scrubbies

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Here are a few dishcloths I crocheted along with some recycled plastic bag scrubbies. I purchased this large clearance skein of Bernat cotton yarn and have been making kitchen sets with the cotton. I crocheted the plastic scrubbies and then added a final round on the scrubbies using the cotton so it matched the dishcloth.

To the right is my star dishcloth pattern but I did the two final rounds by working Sc’s in each stitch and 3 Sc’s in each point of the star. I thought by working the last few rounds in single crochet with white cotton yarn that it added a nice finish to the dishcloth.

The scrubbie dot pattern was adapted by using plastic bags cut into 3/4″ wide strips to create plarn and then using a “J” hook, I crocheted the pattern as written except for the final round which I used the cotton yarn to match my dishcloth.


Here is my open mesh magic dishcloth pattern using the same cotton yarn. The scrubbers were again plastic bags with the final round done in the cotton yarn to match.

So if you want to crochet some recycled plastic bag scrubbies, consider adding a final round of cotton yarn to them so they can match the dishcloth to create a unique kitchen set. These make excellent eco gifts and people really find the scrubbies handy.