Recycled Plastic Messenger Book Bag
I crocheted this messenger book bag from recycled plastic Safeway bags. People ask me all the time how many bags it takes to crochet different projects of mine. I did a calculation on this project as I crocheted it. I found that I used about 3 bags for two full rounds on the crocheted body of the bag. Therefore I used about 39 bags to crochet the main body of this book bag. Overall I recycled about 60 plastic bags to crochet the messenger book bag.
I cut my plarn about 1 inch wide using the looping method to create my plastic bag yarn.
I crocheted 26 rows in half double crochet (HDC) before starting the flap. For the flap, I crocheted 12 rows in HDC before starting the decreases for the tapered flap. I crocheted a total of 25 rows and then added a edging of single crochet stitching around the edges of the flap. By adding the single crochet stitches, it helps even out the edges and makes for a smooth finish to the flap.
I crocheted my strap even on 6 stitches wide for a 35 inch long strap.
The original crochet pattern for the messenger bag is found here. It’s a free plarn crochet pattern and I just tweaked it a bit to make this smaller book bag of 14″ wide by 11.5″ long. The original crochet pattern makes a 15-1/2 inches wide and 13 inches long bag with a 42 inch strap.
You might have noticed that the Safeway plastic bags are more tan in color on the body of the bag. These were some very old bags I had stored. And now Safeway uses a more brown bag and therefore I tried to do the flap in all of those bags to stay uniform in my project. As I said above, this recycled bag project recycled about 60 plastic bags and hopefully my librarian friend will enjoy this book bag as a retirement gift.
Tags: book-bag, crochet, crocheting-with-plarn, messenger-bag, plarn, plastic-bag-yarn, recycled-plastic-bags, recycled-plastic-crafting
Oct 02, 2020
Wow… Superb article. Everyone use this kind of bags maybe they save the beautiful nature around us. Thank you so much for sharing this article
Oct 07, 2020
superb messenger book bag….a lot of recycle products should come in feature
Oct 08, 2020
this is great bag you have this will sure reduce a lot of waste
Oct 08, 2020
This is one of the great way to reuse plastic the bag looks great
Nov 04, 2020
Amazing Blog
Nov 10, 2020
It’s a really nice bag.
Nov 25, 2020
Great! It’s a really nice one.
Jul 10, 2021
Wow. Lovely bag, you are talented