My Recycled Bags.com

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

Plastic Ditty Bag

I fell in love with this crocheted ditty bag pattern when I first saw it. It’s so cute and has a handy strap that threads through the front of the bag. You may recognize this pattern by Dot Matthews that she created and used regular worst yarn to crochet her bag. I wanted to try crocheting the pattern using recycled plastic bags or plarn. Here is my finished plastic ditty bag.

Because plastic bag yarn is thicker, my ditty bag came out a bit larger than Dot’s bag. I followed Dot’s pattern except that I had to crochet 27 rounds before doing the handle rather than her pattern that calls for 22 rounds. Other than that, I crocheted the bag according to the free pattern available here.

Click on any of the photos to supersize

My finished plastic ditty bag measures 7 inches tall, 7 inches across the bottom and has a 14 inch long handle strap. So whether you want to crochet with regular yarn or plarn, this pattern makes for a cute ditty bag and would be wonderful reusable gift bag project too.