Introducing the latest of my recycled bags. This is a wheelchair or walker tote that is crocheted all in recycled plastic bags. Some people also call them a wheelchair carrier as you use them to carry things such as books, newspapers or tissues.
This recycled bag was crocheted using the free puff stitch wheelchair tote pattern. It features a red, white and blue striped theme. As it is hard to find these special colored bags, I only crocheted the puff stitches on the front of the tote. Each puff stripe row used less than 2 colored plastic bags made into plarn to crochet.
I used a K (6.5 mm) crochet hook to work this tote bag. Final finished size is 10.5 inches wide by 9 inches long with 6.75 inch straps. I added
Here is my latest recycled bag project. It’s a smaller version of Japanese knot bag wine tote that I crocheted a few years ago. For this plarn wine tote, I crocheted it a few stitches less around and only went up to a standing height of 9.5 inches.
The full written free Japanese Knot Plarn Tote pattern is found here. Just remember for this smaller tote bag use a K (6.5 mm) crochet hook. Adjust the original pattern as desired to reach the size for the tote that you need. The beauty in these patterns is that you can always tweak them to get the desired outcomes.
Below is a photo of my recycled wine tote with a small bottle of wine.
Back this month to share my new recycled bag project. Here is my pink cabled plarn purse crocheted with recycled newspaper sacks.
This project was crocheted using a plarn pattern that I created back in 2012. The original free pattern can be found here in which I used recycled plastic bags and some regular Red Heart yarn for the trim and strap. This new purse is crocheted entirely of recycled plastic bags. I have a picture tutorial on how to make plastic bag yarn from these newspaper plastic sleeves here.
Many people always ask me “How many bags does it take to make this?” Well, it all depends but my estimate is that you will need at least
Here is a basket that was crocheted using plastic bag yarn for the project material. I used the Lily original basket pattern done in cotton for this recycled bag project. I chained 28 with plarn (plastic bag yarn) to start the smaller basket version of this pattern using a K (6.5) crochet hook.
Following the general pattern design, I crocheted each side to about 6 inches wide before working the fold line on each side by working in the back loops only (BLO). For the base, I chained 19 with the plastic bag yarn and worked even on 18 stitches for 17 rows. My base piece was just a bit wider than the sides but this worked out just right for placing the base inside the basket. With wrong sides together, I then crocheted single crochet stitch from the outside through both thicknesses evenly along the sides aligning the corners together to secure the base to the basket.
Here is a photo of the bottom of my crocheted basket.
Once done, I folded over the top of the basket about 2 inches. This recycled craft project used about
People frequently ask me where I find all the different colored bags for recycled bag projects. I admit it is harder to find pretty colors of plastic bags to turn into yarn or plarn as it is referred to now. Plarn is the plastic yarn made by cutting recycled plastic into strips. One tip I want to share today is that you must be creative finding colorful plastic to recycle into plarn.
One such example is this large red plastic bag that hash browns are sold in.
It is mostly a nice bright red color and can be cut into a thin strip to make plarn. Because this plastic is very thick, I cut it in one long continuous strip about 1/2 inch wide.
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