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Tag: recycled

Recycled Dog Food Bag

Cindy4 Comments

I’ve had recycling a dog food bag on my to-do list for quite some time. I’ve saved several of the plastic webbed food bags and just needed to rinse them out and upcycle them into tote bags. The first step was to remove the dog food odor and clean them.

I opened the bottom seam of the bag as it was just taped closed. I washed them out in the bath tub and then rinsed once with white vinegar and let them air dry. There still was a hint of dog food smell so I sprayed down the inside of the bag using a homemade citrus-vinegar solution. After another rinse and dry, the bags smelled clean with no hint of dog food.

Once the bags are all clean and dry, I was ready to start cutting. For the larger tote, I cut the bottom off just above the writing and details of the bag. I did this to try and eliminate some of the boring part of the bag. I then cut part of the top off and folded over the top edge twice to make a nice hem. The finished size of the recycled dog food tote bag is 17 inches tall, 15 inch wide and 6 inches deep at the base. I used some webbing strap material to add the handles and just folded them under the hem before sewing the top hem in place. This secured the handles in place and hid the ends of the webbing. The finished length of the handles are 10 inches long on my bag shown.

Here is the inside of the tote bag with the bottom sewn

Recycled Milk Jug

Cindy7 Comments

Today I want to share a recycled milk jug project that I saw over at Disney Family Fun. By cutting a milk jug you can create a reusable container that you can use for a lunch box or other purposes. All you need is a plastic one gallon milk jug, a sharp pair of scissors, a marker, a nail or thumb tack, a button and a bit of yarn.

Mark your milk jug as shown and use a sharp pair of scissors to cut away the top and handle portion of the jug.

My first attempt was done free hand and I found it difficult to get my shape even when I marked the jug for cutting. I made this little template below and used it as a guide for marking the jug on my 2nd attempt. Just hold it up to the milk jug to help you mark the shape for your cuts.

It’s very important that you cut up high to the top of the milk jug opening to get the curved flap area for your lunch box. I used a small sharp nail to push the holes through on the plastic to create the folds for the flaps. My milk jug had a natural line molded in the plastic that I used for the line for my holes. Once the holes are punched, you can fold over the flaps along the punched edges.

The original recycled craft project called for a Velcro closure but I wanted to create a simple closure using some spare buttons I had on hand along with a scrap of yarn.

Satchel Styled Tote Bag

Cindy15 Comments

I am back sharing another free recycled plarn pattern that I created. I used a satchel style strap design in this crocheted tote bag using plastic bags. The white bags are just regular grocery sacks and the pink ones are plastic newspaper bags that I have been getting from my local library. I used the combination to craft this satchel styled tote which I hope you will enjoy.

Best wishes and happy crafting to all!


Satchel Styled Recycled Tote Bag Pattern

Materials needed:
One large ball of plastic bag yarn aka Plarn in white (approx. 40 bags)
Small ball of pink plarn (approx. 20 bags)

Hook: J (6 mm) metal crochet hook

Description: Tote bag
Bag measures 14 inches wide and 10 inches long with 14 inches handles

Directions:
Using pink plarn, Ch 26.

Crochet a Toy Plarn Ball

Cindy3 Comments


I was asked recently for a round toy ball pattern. Well ask and you share receive. In an effort to continually make this blog a comprehensive library of free patterns using recycled materials, here is my free crocheted toy plarn ball project.

My recycled plastic toy ball has a 5 inch diameter and reminds me of a nerf ball as it’s soft. It would be a great toy for a child or a play toy for a pet. It also is a wonderful way to use up those little scrap pieces of plastic bags that you have leftover when you create your plarn. You can use the handles and end pieces to stuff your toy plarn ball.

This is a simple pattern but I had to re-work it four times to get it round. Who says creating patterns is easy — LOL. This toy ball is worked all in one piece and my final product is pretty round. You could probably easily adapt the crochet pattern to make it a smaller or larger ball as desired.

Please enjoy the pattern and you can find a list of all my free recycled craft patterns here.

Free Crocheted Round Plarn Toy Ball Pattern

Materials needed:
*Plastic bags cut into strips 1 inch wide and interlocked to create plarn. (Approx. 12 plastic bags)
The tutorial on how to create yarn from plastic bags can be found here.
*Scraps of plastic bags for ball stuffing.

Hook:
J (6 mm)size metal crochet hook

Description:
Recycled Plastic Toy Ball – 5 inch diameter

Directions:
Using plastic bags cut into plarn, Ch 4 and join with a Sl St to form a ring.