Plarn Scrubbie Coral

I crocheted these scrubbies using recycled plastic bags that were cut into plarn. It reminds me so much of sea coral that I just had to call the scrubbers scrubbie coral. The inspiration for these scrubbies came from my friend Kristy who shared her cotton scrubbies at her blog Texiles4you.

People ask me all the time about the amount of plarn created by each plastic bag and while it may differ with one type of plastic bag to another, I found the standard white retail bags yield me about 7 yards of plarn when cut them 1″ wide and assembled using the looping method. The orange plastic newspaper bags provided me with 6 yards due to their smaller size.

With that in mind, you need 4 plastic bags to make each one of these scrubbies. The white scrubbies were crocheted just 4 rounds. I found I liked a bigger scrubbie so I crocheted the orange one five full rounds. By crocheting 5 rounds you use all of the plarn created from the 4 plastic bags where the smaller scrubbers only use a little over 3 bags.

You will find as your crochet each round that it begins to twist which is normal. The more rounds you crochet, the more twist you get. Have fun with the colors and mix and match them. I plan to crochet more of these scrubbies and add a different color just on the final round which should create an even more unique coral look for the scrubbies.

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Plarn Scrubbie Coral Pattern

Materials needed:
Plastic bag yarn or Plarn 4 plastic bags cut into 1 inch wide strips
as shown in my plarn making tutorial

Hook: N (9 mm) size metal hook

Description: Recycled Plastic Scrubbie
Scrubbies are about 3-1/2 – 4″ wide depending on if you do 4 or 5 rounds

Directions:
Rnd 1
Ch 2 and work 8 Sc in the 2nd ch from hook. Do not join and continue working in rounds. Use a stitch marker if necessary so you know where each round starts.

Rnd 2
Work 2 Sc in each st.

Rnd 3-5
Work 3 Sc in ea st.
Option: For a smaller scrubbie, crochet just 4 rounds.

If you have any questions or find discrepancies in this pattern, please email me using contact tab above.

Abbreviations:
Ch – Chain
Ea – Each
FO – Finish Off
Hdc – Half Double Crochet
Inc – Increase
Plarn – Plastic Bag Yarn
Rnd – Round
Sc – Single Crochet
Sk – Skip
Sl St – Slip Stitch
St – Stitch

This pattern is copyrighted by Cindy of My Recycled Bags {dot com} and may only be used for private individual use. No commercial sales or use is permitted. Links to this pattern are acceptable. ©2011

****Please do not copy my patterns on your blog site or post my patterns on Internet sites. I do not allow my patterns to be republished without expressed written permission. Posting of my patterns, without […]

Plarn Sunflower Tote Bag

Here is my recycled plastic bag tote that features a crocheted sunflower. The tote bag is crocheted using recycled plastic bags or plarn and then the sunflower embellishment is added. I created the sunflower crochet pattern using both plastic bags and regular cotton yarn so it could be done in either type of material. Here is the recycled plastic tote bag pattern and below you will find the free pattern for the sunflower.

Plarn Tape Measure Covers

Tape measure covers or TMC are a new and fun project that Delights has been working on over at Ravelry. She has crocheted some adorable covers that with her permission I will share a few photos of her work below. You can follow the TMC Happening here over at Ravelry.

Delights and I teamed up and crocheted a few plarn TMC projects together. I made a few shells from recycled plastic bags and sent them to her to add her beautiful flowers and other decorations that she is so skilled at doing.

Here is Delight’s TMC picture tutorial. For the plarn TMC shell, I used a H hook and did only 10 HDC stitches for round 1.

Plarn Wine Bottle Holder

Introducing a recycled plastic crocheted wine bottle holder. I have wanted to create a wine bottle cozy using plastic bags for a long time now. It’s one of those things that I keep wanting to crochet and write up the free pattern to share for years. Well, I finally got the project done.

The crocheted wine holder holds a 750 ml bottle of wine easily and even a 1.5 L can be slipped into the plarn cozy.

Along with the free crochet pattern, here is my plarn wine bottle holder.

Plarn Wine Bottle Holder Pattern

Wine Bottle Holder Size: 10″ tall with 3-1/2 across bottom

Hook:
Metal “K” (6.5 mm) US size crochet hook

Materials: 14 plastic bags cut into 1 inch wide plarn
Piece of ribbon or strand of plarn for top closure

Directions:
With plarn, Ch 4, Sl St to join in first st of chain to form ring. Holder is worked in the round without turning unless directed to do so.

Plastic Bag Doormat Rug

Several people have asked me for a rug pattern crocheted using recycled plastic bags or plarn. So what better way to kick off the after Christmas crafting but by doing a reader suggested project. Someone suggested a doormat which sounded like a great project. I wanted my doormat rug to be rectangle in shape and have a pretty pattern. So I modified the typical granny square pattern to make a rectangle-shaped rug. It turned out pretty good but my corners are a bit pointed. I’m not sure if that was because of the plarn or my pattern but the rug is very functional. It works great for muddy shoes as you can just rinse it off when it gets dirty. If you must wash it, remember use a gentle cycle in your washer and do not dry it in the dryer as it will melt.

My Recycled Plastic Doormat Rug

If you need instructions on how to make plastic bag yarn or plarn, here is the link to my picture tutorial. If you have never made yarn from bags, it will walk you through the process. For everyone else, you’re all set now so go and have fun making yourself a recycled plastic doormat!

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Free Recycled Doormat Rug Pattern Using Plastic Bags
with Placemat Variation

Size: 21 inches wide x 17 inches rectangle rug
Hook: N (9 mm) crochet hook

Materials:
Large ball of white plastic bags cut and tied into yarn (plarn)
Small ball of blue and grey plastic bag yarn (plarn) used for center motif

Plastic Bags Upcycled into a Clothespin Bag

White plastic bags are used by many retail and grocery stores these days. They are not the prettiest bags to use for crafting. People give me lots of white plastic bags to recycled. So I’ve been trying to be more creative and come up with clever ideas to turn these dull bags into cute and useful items. What do you think of my clothespin bag with a ribbon bow tie?

Here is a hobo bag I crocheted too. It’s amazing how much a little ribbon adds to the projects. Click on my hobo bag and see if you think it makes a cute summer purse.
Click to view full-sized photos

Here’s an example of adding some fun fur to spice up those white bags in this recycled tote bag pattern.

So take heart if you have lots of white plastic bags. You can upcycle them into some really cute crochet projects by just adding some ribbon, fun fur, or other embellishments. Here is the link to my free clothespin “peg” bag pattern if you’d like to crochet this project. Also you can browse through all my free patterns at this link.
Enjoy and happy green crafting to all!

Plastic Tote Pattern for Recycled Paper

I posted a few weeks ago about my crocheted plarn tote that a customer ordered to hold her recycled paper. I have been working on writing the crochet pattern and am happy to post it today.

Here is the crocheted base which is done in single crochet for added strength.

One final photo of the recycled tote bag laying down and showing the base.

So without further ado, here is the free crochet plarn pattern for this recycled tote bag. Please enjoy and share any comments with me concerning the project below.

Recycled Paper Tote Bag Pattern

Materials needed:
Plarn yarn 1” wide – approx. 90 plastic grocery bags
Hooks: K (6.5 mm) & N (9 mm) metal crochet hooks

Description: Recycled Plastic Tote Bag
Bag measures 18″ wide, 12” tall and 7” deep with 8.5” handles

Directions:
Recycled bag is crocheted in 2 pieces. A base piece is crocheted and then the sides are worked in the round to complete the bag.

Row 1 (Base piece)
With K crochet hook, Ch 52. Turn and Hdc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain stitch down to end. Ch 2 and turn.

Plastic Trash Rug

This crocheted rug has been a work in progress for quite some time. I’m happy to say its done — Yea! It is completely crocheted from plastic trash. I used recycled bags from bread, hotdog buns, bagels, toilet paper, frozen foods, hashbrowns, paper towel packaging, hamburger buns, taco shells, hoagie buns, and other pieces of plastic from numerous products having plastic packaging. This plastic is the heavier gauge stuff and it’s much harder to crochet and does make your hands and joints sore.

Because this plastic was much heavier than the normal thin plastic grocery bags, I cut the strips only about 1/2 inch wide. I cut the plastic into strips using my standard plarn making method to assemble the plastic strips.

I crocheted it all using single crochet stitches as this is a bit easier on the hands. A word of advice though, take lots of breaks from this project as it will help your hands and joints from getting too sore. Also if your rug doesn’t want to lay down flat, apply some gentle heat from a blow dryer, and flatten out your rug as you warm up the plastic. This really helped as my rug wanted to curl up a bit but with the heat from the dry blower, I was able to get my rug to lay down fairly flat.

Below you will find the general directions for crocheting this recycled plastic rug. Please be aware that this pattern is just a loose guideline for making your own unique rug using recycled plastic. You may need to add a few more stitches here and there so your ends lay down flat. I re-worked several rounds at times as the rug just didn’t want to lay down very flat. But remember the dry blower tip and try this out if needed. With that being said, enjoy the project and happy crocheting!

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Recycled Plastic Oval Rug Pattern

Materials needed:

Plastic bread bags and any other plastic packaging that you can cut into loops 1/2 inch wide
to create plastic bag yarn or plarn.

Hook:
N (9 mm) USA size crochet hook

Description:
Recycled plastic oval rug measures 16 inches wide and 30 inches long

Directions:
Ch 36 (approx. 14 inches)

Pot Scrubber Crocheted from Plastic Bags

Here is my parade of pot scrubbers crocheted from recycled plastic bags!

I used several different types of plastic to create these pot scrubbies. The yellow and white/red ones were crocheted using the pattern below with a “N” hook. The white/gold one was made from a recycled plastic wedding bag. You can read about that project here. This scrubber was made using a “H” hook rather than the bigger hook as the plastic yarn was single strand. It is a much tighter stitched scrubber than the ones with the bigger hook. Here is the free pattern link for that scrubber.

So depending on your project either use the pattern below for pot scrubbers made from recycled plastic grocery bags or the link above for the single strand plastic strips.
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Free Crocheted Pot Scrubber Pattern using Plastic Grocery Bags

Scrubber measures 3-1/2 inches wide across. (Make 2 round disks)

Material: Plastic bags cut into 1 inch strips

Hook: Metal N (9 mm) crochet hook