My son recently got married and left us this plastic gift bag along with some other trash at our house after they opened some of their gifts here. Being a recycling person, I looked at the trash and saw some treasures.

Above is the picture of the very big plastic gift bag that had been cut to cover a large gift. It was such a pretty plastic bag that I just couldn’t throw it away even though it had been cut into pieces, had splits and other holes in it. I thought wow I could make something out of that plastic. So out came the scissors and I began to cut strips. Now because of the damage to the plastic bag, I couldn’t cut it into circular strips as I do normally with plastic grocery bags. With this I needed to cut long strips and try to avoid tying too many knots because the plastic is so thick. The knots do not hide well when your plastic is thick or heavy gauge.

I cut up as much usable plastic off the bag pieces to create 1 inch wide yarn. I used a smaller hook — an H (5 mm) metal hook to crochet these items. I must say it was a bit hard on my finger joints. The thick plastic is difficult to work with and it caused me to pull harder on my work as I crocheted.

I crocheted this coaster out of my recycled wedding bag. The coaster is crocheted using the same pattern as the link here but with 1 inch single strand strips of plastic bag. You also need to add one additional round to make the coaster big enough as I used an H hook instead of the bigger hook I usually use.

Star and Pot Scrubber

The star is also a new project for me. I am experimenting with it using plastic bags for a hair barrette. You could also use the star as an embellishment to any project you may be crafting. I am crocheting more stars now and will be posting the pattern here shortly.

Then I crocheted this pot scrubber out of my recycled wedding bag. The scrubber pattern is below and varies just slightly from my other scrubber that is coming out soon using plastic bags.
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Crocheted Scrubber Pattern using a Recycled Wedding Bag

Scrubber measures 3-3/4 inches wide across.

Material: Single strand plastic cut into 1 inch long strips

Hook: Metal H hook

Round Disk (Make 2 round disks)
Round 1
Ch 4, Sl St to join in first st of chain to form ring.

Round 2
Ch 2 (counts as first Hdc), work 11 Hdc in ring (12 Hdc), join with Sl St at top of Ch 2.

Round 3
Ch 2, work Hdc in same st, then work 2 Hdc in each st around.

Round 4
Ch 2, work Hdc in same st, then *work 1 Hdc in next st and 2 Hdc in next st* — repeat between * -*. Join with Sl St at top of Ch 2 to end round.
Fasten off and weave ends under. (Tip: leave yarn attached when you complete 2nd disk that way you don’t need to attach yarn to join two disks together.)

With wrong sides together, join your two round disks together by working sc through both layers in between last rnd sts. Work *1 Sc in next st, then 2 Sc in next st* — repeat between * -* to last st. End with Sl St in last st. Fasten off and weave ends under.

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

Abbreviations:
Ch – Chain
Sc – Single Crochet
Hdc – Half Double Crochet
Sl St – Slip Stitch
Rnd – Round

This pattern is copyrighted by Cindy at 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. ©2007

****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 written permission is in violation of my copyrights and is content theft.