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Patterns: Other materials

Projects made from other recycled materials, such as socks, rags and pet-food bags.

Barbie Doll Sock Dress

September 22, 2015 3 comments
Barbie Doll Sock Dress

Here is a recycled sock that I made into a Barbie doll dress. I kept this very simple with no sewing. I crocheted the top yoke and straps using a E crochet hook with some fingering yarn.

I used a wool sock that was torn and cut off the bottom as shown below.

I folded over the cut edge of the sock and joined my fingering yarn at the back with a slip stitch. Next I just crocheted around the top edge of the sock by poking my crochet hook into the sock edge and completing each stitch. I worked around the sock edge evenly with single crochet (SC) stitches. I worked my stitches fairly tight as the sock opening was plenty wide enough for the doll. I had 40 stitches around the top edge of the sock.

Next without turning I just joined with a slip stitch to the beginning first stitch. Chain 1 and continued

Potholder Towel Combo

September 13, 2024 No comments yet
Fall Potholder Towel Combo

Here are a few potholder towel combo ideas. First is a Fall themed potholder from the Dollar Store that I added a towel to the bottom of the potholder.

The towel is folded in half and I used a needle and thread to run a baste stitch through the center for gathering. I then gathered the center of the towel to match the bottom of the potholder.

Below is a photo of the front with it pinned in several areas. You can either machine stitch the towel to the potholder or hand stitch it in place. For this project, I hand stitched the towel to the bottom edge of the potholder. I was able to hide my stitches using brown thread and pulling up under the red trim edge of the potholder. I secured the towel tightly by doing many stitches and making sure it wasn’t going to pull loose. See photos below for more details and you can click on them to supersize the photos.

Rag Bag Tote

January 12, 2008 21 comments
RagBagTote

Rag bags are a fun and fugal crafting idea. You use old material to create strips and then you crochet them into a cool rag bag tote such as the one shown here. I used an old queen-sized bed sheet and some other recycled curtain panels to create this handy tote bag.

Here is a close-up photo of the strips I cut. As you can see the solid-colored sheet material was just cut into strips about 1 inch wide. I tried to do the longest strips I could by going around and around the sheet so I did not have too many splices. It’s like peeling an orange in one long continuous strip. The printed material I cut wider and folded it over so the right sides were facing out as shown. I pressed it with a hot iron to keep the strips flat so the printed side was out as I crocheted it.

Click to view full-sized photos

This sturdy and reusable tote can be used as a purse, tote bag, or even as a market bag. It’s very strong with comfortable handles and a fashionable design. So got an old sheet — well get green and craft yourself this eco-friendly rag bag!

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Free Crocheted Recycled Rag Bag Tote Pattern

Bag measures 14 inches wide, 12 inches tall, and 9″ handles

Material:
One Queen sized sheet cut into 1 inch strips

and other fabric cut into strips for stripes on bag

Hook: Metal N (9 mm) crochet hook

Chain 22 with main sheet strips

Recycled Dog Food Bag

September 10, 2013 4 comments
Recycled Dog Food Bag

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



About Me

Hello, I’m Cindy or aka RecycleCindy. Welcome to my blog site that is dedicated to recycling and crafting. I love to crochet and create crafts and other useful things from recycled materials. I share many free tutorials and patterns for creating recycled projects as well as other handmade items.


Here is a direct link to all my free patterns available here on My Recycled Bags.


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