Come Learn and Share Information about Recycling, Crocheting & Recycled Crafting
Here is a crocheted plastic bag keeper made from what else – recycled plastic bags! This photo was shared with me recently from an on-line reader Joan. Joan crochet this bag keeper in black and white to go with her kitchen colors. She also added ribbon at the top for embellishment.
Joan’s plarn bag keeper was made using my crocheted plastic bag pattern.
I always enjoy seeing reader’s completed project and this one was particularly cool to see.
I am working on a new pair of crocheted plarn sandals. You may recall my first pair of recycled plastic bag sandals I crocheted. This new project is using grey recycled plastic retail bags cut 1 inch wide and assembled using the using the knot and inter-loop plarn-making method.
I am happy to share this photo of the finished crocheted soles for the sandals. It’s been a real trial and error for these soles as I wanted to improve on my original pattern. You may notice that there are two darker grey soles and two lighter ones. I didn’t have enough of one color to complete all four soles. I plan to put two sole pieces together to create one reinforced sole for each sandal. Now that I have the soles done, I can now continue working on the crochet pattern that I will eventually share here on my blog.
It’s been 5 years since I first crocheted a baseball type cap from recycled plastic bags. Recently someone asked me to clarify some of the pattern details so I thought it might be a good idea to re-work the pattern.
If you read my blog last month, you might remember me blogging about these pretty pink plastic bags that an on-line friend sent me. Well I used them to create pink plarn and crocheted this recycled baseball cap using about 20 plastic bags.
The pattern worked up a little different with this crochet project but generally the hat came out looking about the same. I did have to decrease a bit to get the hat tighter on my head and add another row to the brim portion of the hat. Here is the original crocheted recycled plastic baseball pattern with the changes noted in the post.
I’ve had this idea in my head for awhile on how to create a tote bag that fades from black to white using recycled plastic bags or plarn. Here is what I came up with. I used recycled black plastic bags to start and then grey bags to the dirty-white colored bags and ended with white plastic bags.
I used the ultimate plarn tote bag pattern to crochet the bag with just some minor changes. On round 3 at the curve of the ends, I crocheted 2 Half Double Crochets (Hdc) in the first stitch at the curve. Then I worked just 1 Hdc in next stitch and 2 Hdc in the stitch at the other part of the curve. Repeat for the other side’s end.
For round 4 curve, you want to identify the 4 stitches on the curve of each end. Crochet 2 Hdc in the first stitch, then 1 Hdc in each of the next 2 stitches and 2 Hdc in the next stitch. Repeat for the other end. This should give you a nice rounded corner on each side of your bag.
Now follow the original pattern directions, changing colors as follows:
I have tons of white plastic bags as many people do. Most people that craft with recycled plastic bags find it difficult to find pretty colorful bags. You can usually find a few unique colors but it’s almost impossible to find enough bags to crochet a complete tote bag. So I’m always on the quest to find new ways to embellish my white tote bags. Here is my latest crocheted recycled plastic bag. It’s a red, white and blue striped reusable tote bag. It uses around 30 white retail bags and only about 3 blue plastic bags and 3 red newspaper bags. As you can see, just a few colorful bags can dress up an otherwise boring white plastic bag tote.
To crochet this recycled tote bag you basically use my Ultimate Grocery Bag pattern and add the stripes using the red and blue plastic bags cut into plarn. I also changed up the handles a bit and will detail the changes below to explain how to crochet this recycled plastic tote bag.
I used a N (9 mm) crochet hook to work this tote bag. The finished size is 13 inches wide and 14 inches long with 9 inch handles.
Following the basic pattern link, crochet with white plastic bag yarn (plarn) for 19 rounds. End at side of bag with a slip stitch.
