Are you looking for free patterns to use recycled plastic bags? Maybe you already know that you can make plarn by cutting plastic bags into strips to create yarn that you can craft with. Whether you are new to crafting with recycled materials or a veteran who has made recycled tote bags, plarn purses, plastic bag rugs, or any of the other many items that can be made from recycled plastic, I hope you will enjoy seeing this roundup of plastic creations.
Recycled Plastic Fat Bottom Purse
Recycled Plastic Trash Rug
Plarn Reusable Produce Bag
Gingham Plarn Purse
Round Recycled Plastic Bag Rug
A friend at Ravelry shared this pretty crocheted scalloped hat edging. It just looked so nice on the baby hat she crocheted that I wanted to try it.
You can use any baby or child’s hat pattern you have and just add this crocheted scalloped edging to the beanie once it’s finished. The pink and blue baby hats were crocheted using a basic beanie pattern. I then added the edging to both. The only difference is that the blue hat has a round of single crochet stitching around it before I added the scallop edging round.
Scalloped Edging:
Turn, Sc in back loops only working on the inside of the hat so the scallops face out when folded to the outside of finished hat.
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
Here is my first attempt at a recycled t-shirt yarn hat. I did a little trial and error to get the hat so it fit comfortably on my head. Here is the finished hat that I crocheted from recycled t-shirt yarn.
Here is a photo of the hat taken flat. It’s a comfortable bucket type hat that could be worn to keep the sun off your head and face while fishing, in the garden or at the beach.
Free T-Yarn Bucket Hat Crochet Pattern
Materials needed:
2) T-shirts cut into 3/8 inch wide strips and gently pulled to curl the t-yarn or tarn in two colors if doing the 2-color hat as shown. Click here for my T-Shirt Yarn making tutorial for recycling old shirts into T-yarn.
Hook: N – 9 mm U.S. size metal crochet hook
Finished measurements:
24 inches head circumference and 7 inches long
Rnd 1
With dark blue t-yarn, work 6 Sc in a magic circle. (6)
Here is my free crochet pattern for a wavy ripple dishcloth. I first used this wavy ripple style to crochet a lapghan and just love the look of the stitch pattern. So after some trial and errors, I came up with a dishcloth using blue tie-dye cotton Sugar ‘n Cream yarn.
Here is another dishcloth I crocheted using the wavy ripple pattern. I ran out of the pink twist cotton yarn so I only crocheted 13 rows. I added a white edging around the entire dishcloth by working single crochet stitches around evenly. I worked 2 single crochet stitches in the corners. This trim edging gives the dishcloth a little different look and may be useful it you are trying to use up scrap pieces of cotton.
My crochet pattern may be used to make a wavy ripple dishcloth or washcloth. Mix and match colors to create your own unique crocheted cloths.
Free Crocheted Wavy Ripple Dishcloth Pattern
Description: 9-1/2 inches by 9 inches dishcloth
Hook: H (5 mm) crochet hook
Materials: 2 oz ball of cotton yarn such as Sugar n Cream
Ch 36.
Row 1
DC in 3rd st from hook,
Earlier this year someone sent me several vintage audio tape reels. I had never crafted with this type of film tape before and was excited to give it a try. I figured the tape would be similar to vcr video tape or cassette tape when I crocheted with it.
The tape from vcr and cassette tapes is strong and a bit stretchable. You can crochet and knit with the recycled material without it breaking very often. The material while strong is still flexible enough to create many different recycled video tape projects and cassette tape items. Unfortunately this was not the case with these old audio tapes.
My first attempt at crocheting with the tapes resulted in the tape strand breaking almost immediately. I could only crochet a stitch or two before one of the tapes broke. I typically crochet with two strands of recycled tape as it provides a more durable product. I tried one strand, I tried two strands, I tried adding a strand of yarn for stability, and nothing worked.
August 2, 2013 Comments Off on Crocheted T-Yarn Wash Mitt
Here is a car wash mitt I crocheted using t-shirt yarn I recycled from several old white tee-shirts. I cut this t-yarn as narrow as I could to crochet this wash mitt. The result is a very thick wash mitt that you can use to scrub the car or other things you may need to clean.
I crocheted the wash mitt using the crocodile oven mitt pattern as the base of the mitt. I changed the cuff portion of the pattern to finish off the wash mitt using a colored t-shirt cut just as thin as possible. Make sure you stretch your t-shirt strips to create curled t-shirt yarn. Crochet the cuff using the colored t-yarn to complete the project.
I hope you enjoy this free crochet pattern and make yourself a cool recycled wash mitt from your old tee-shirts.
Crocodile Stitch Wash Mitt Pattern
J (6 mm) hook
Materials:
T-shirt yarn cut 1/4 inch wide (about 2 white tee-shirts)
Small amount of a contrasting color for the cuff (1/3 of a colored tee-shirt)
Finished crocheted wash mitt measures 7 inches wide by 9 inches long. The cuff portion is 1-3/4 inches long with a 4-1/4 inch wide opening.
Special Stitch:
Crocodile Scale Stitch: Dc 5 stitches down first post of the 2-Dc base set, Ch 1, and then work 5 Dc up the 2nd Dc of the 2-Dc set.
Directions:
With J hook and t-yarn, Ch 42.
This is my first wavy ripple project. I was inspired by Attic24 who did one of her beautiful colorful afghans using this stitch design. Here is a closeup of my wavy ripple pattern after I crocheted the stripes for one side of my lapghan.
I set out to crochet my lapghan to fit a person in a wheelchair. I wasn’t sure about the starting chain number of stitches I would need for the lapghan so I ended up doing a chain of 145 stitches for my base row. Well it’s a lot wide than I would have liked at 44 inches so I ended up doing this as a long lapghan that goes down and covers a person’s legs. I crocheted this lapghan working it in rows vertically for a total of 48 rows. I used a Bernat 14 oz pounder-style worst weight yarn in a clay color along with some scrap brown yarn for stripes.
Here is the finished photo of my wheelchair wavy ripple lapghan.
Free Crocheted Wavy Ripple Lapghan Pattern
Description: Wavy ripple wheelchair lapghan blanket
Hook: H (5 mm) crochet hook
Gauge: 2 rows = 1 inch; 7 stitches = 2 inches
Materials: Bernat 14 oz/400 g yarn in clay and 3 oz of worst weight brown
Finished size: 30 inches wide by 44 inches long (wavy going up and down)
Crochet pattern written in US crochet terms.
Instructions for starting:
Chain 145 for base row.
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:
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