Archive for the ‘Up-cycled plastic bags’ Category

A few years ago the grocery stores here in New Zealand  said they were not supplying plastic bags for our purchases. This was an effort to reduce plastic waste in the landfill. I think they could have used bio friendly plastic that breaks down much quicker or provide boxes if they were so concerned. They gave up the idea after a while because not everyone was willing to buy the cloth bags.

I already re-used the larger plastic bags for bin liners in the kitchen and had quite a few of them, so decided to crochet them into up-cycled grocery bags. These bags are very strong and can easily hold 2 – 3 litre bottles of milk, the plastic bags they provided were already quite thin and I never trusted them to hold such a weight.

There are several tutorials on the net on how to prepare the plastic so you can knit or crochet the ” plarn ” basically you just cut off the handles and the bottom of the bag and then cut the whole bag into loops. Then link the loops together and wind into a ball.

I made a crochet base the size of the bottom of the bag  just with single crochet back and forth then started to crochet around the base. After a few rows it starts to look more like the bottom of a bag as it begins to stand up, just keep going until it is the height you want. At the top I counted how many stitches I needed in the middle and at the sides then worked to the first handle, crochet the length of the handle then join to the side. Work until you reach the other side where the second handle goes and do the same, then go round again working another row on the handles secure the end of the ” plarn ” by weaving in and out of your stitches and your done.

I have made quite a few of them so far and have given some away, it got so I felt really guilty throwing any plastic in the bin. I even collected the bread bags to crochet, these are a bit more difficult to crochet as the hook developed quite an annoying squeak trying to make a stitch but I persevered and the finished bags are very colorful. I even made one from an old video tape this had the same problem squeak though. I don’t have a pattern just made it up but if you need some basic instructions I can let you know how many stitches and rows I used, can’t write a pattern though.


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