The Ultimate Grocery Bag
What would be the ultimate grocery bag? Of course in my opinion it would be made from recycled materials, be reusable, strong and very durable. What about free — yes that would be the ultimate. So here it is. It is crafted from recycled plastic bags, it is reusable over and over, doesn’t tear, and it reduces the use of bags from the grocery store. So it is a win-win bag. You win and the environment wins. It’s the ultimate bag!
This bag is created by crocheting with plastic bag yarn or plarn. I have a handy picture tutorial here if you need to know the steps to make your own plarn. It’s a fun and easy way to create a durable market bag as shown above. Plus it’s a great way to repurpose those plastic bags you may have stashed around the house.
I hope you enjoy this green and frugal project. Here is the free crochet pattern below.
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The Free Ultimate Grocery Tote Bag Pattern
Materials needed:
One very large ball of plastic bag yarn aka Plarn
Approx. 50 plastic grocery bags
Hook: N (9 mm) metal crochet hook
Description: Grocery Tote Bag
Bag measures 13-1/2 inches wide and 13 inches long with 9 inch handles
Directions:
Ch 28
Rnd 1
Hdc in 2nd ch from hook and in ea chain st down to end. Work 2 Hdc in end st, then continue around other side of chain by working a Hdc in ea st to other end then work 2 Hdc in end st.
Rnd 2 – 4
Hdc in each st around to first end, work 2 Hdc in ea of the two end sts, then Hdc in ea st to other end, then work 2 Hdc in ea of the two end sts. Do not connect at end of rounds, just continue working Hdc’s in rounds as this creates a seamless bag.
Rnd 5 – 26
Hdc in ea st around the entire bag bottom. Mark center 12 sts on bag for handle opening.
Rnd 27
Hdc in each st to mark for handle opening (approx 10 sts.) Ch 20, leave 12 stitches un-worked for handle, then Hdc in remaining stitches and across other side to mark for handle opening. Ch 20, leave 12 stitches un-worked for handle opening on other side of bag to match front side. Hdc in each stitch around until you reach side of bag. Check your work to make sure the back opening and handle matches the front of bag. Adjust your sts as needed to match.
Round 28
Hdc in each st around to handle opening. Work Sc’s around the chain of handle evenly, then Hdc around in each stitch until you reach handle on other side. Work Sc’s around chain of other handle evenly, then Hdc around in each remaining st of rnd.
Round 29
Hdc in each st around to handle. Work one Sc in each st of handle, then Hdc in each st of bag to other side’s handle. Work one Sc in each st of handle, then work one Hdc in each remaining st of rnd.
Rnd 30
Hdc in each st around to handle. Work one Sc in each st of handle, then Hdc in each st of bag to other side’s handle. Work one Sc in each st of handle, then work one Hdc in each st to remaining last 3 stitches at side. Work Sc, Sl St, and Sl St in the last 3 sts of round ending at side of bag. This should blend the edge so round ends with edge being even with last round.
Fasten off and weave ends under on inside of the bag.
If you have any questions or find discrepancies in this pattern, please email me using contact tab above.
Abbreviations:
Ch – Chain
Dc – Double Crochet
Hdc – Half Double Crochet
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. ©2008-2016
****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.
Tags: crocheting, free-pattern, plarn, reusable-bag, tote-bag
Jul 19, 2008
You’re the ultimate! 🙂
Jul 19, 2008
ooo Cindy….this looks really cool….and the one in the earlier post looks fabulous too 🙂
Jul 19, 2008
all your work is so great and thanks for keep sharing them with us. now i was wondering if by any chance a stuffed animal could be made out of them. thanks
Jul 21, 2008
Sweet.. Sweet.. this one is so sweet .. when I was start entering blogsphere till now , your post more and more perfect. Thumb and review as bonus 🙂
Jul 21, 2008
That’s a beautiful looking bag, too. Does it fit well over your shoulder. I have a hard time carrying bags by hand if they’re heavy. You should sell those!
Jul 21, 2008
@SteamboatEco:
This bag does not fit over the shoulder. But this bag link has a sling shoulder strap. I do sell some of my bags and do have this sling bag available if you are interested.
Jul 22, 2008
I need to get cracking and make some of these! Thanks for sharing!
Jul 28, 2008
Hi Cindy,
What a great idea! You have so much creativity running through you! Would you mind if I used this on Design^Sprout? Thanks! Hope you’re having a great Monday!
– Veronica
http://www.designsprout.com
Jul 28, 2008
@Veronica,
Yes, that would be great. I appreciate the link backs. I’m feeling pretty
good today. Just trying to get over this last chemo. Then I can really
begin to celebrate the finish of the treatments.
Best wishes and thanks for stopping by.
Aug 02, 2008
I saw this in a book once and have been looking for directions on how to make them ever since. Thanks for posting this!
Aug 04, 2008
[…] week in the green blogosphere: Cindy Endahl of myrecycledbags.com muses on the ultimate grocery bag; while Deirdre Helfferich of The Ester Republic asks What to do? about our ever growing collections […]
Aug 13, 2008
Beautiful shape! And good to do with what we have left over from before we stopped using plastic. (To save the ocean!) Much love…
Dec 14, 2008
What a great idea and wonderful instructions!
I’m making one for myself and posting the links for it on my blog.
:o)
Thank you for sharing!!!
Feb 09, 2009
Great pattern. Thanks! I was inspired to make a wine bottle carrier with plarn. Did it “free-form” starting with flat spiral bottom of sc to get the diameter and then decreased sc to start the vertical sides. When the sc rounds got boring, I did some dc, some post stitches… enough sc to keep the strength. finished with a long handle to either carry the bottle or wrap around the neck for extra cushion. Beats double bagging!
Sep 14, 2009
[…] The website is called My Recycled Bags.com and the project I have decided to embark upon is the Ultimate Grocery Bag. In this project, you take plastic bags, cut them up to create Plarn (plastic yarn) and then […]
Oct 08, 2009
I work in a grocery store and this is the cutest idea for reusable bags.The cloth bags are great and they are getting more popular every day. I have got to make one of these. Thank you for sharing your idea.
Oct 16, 2009
[…] Crocheted Plarn Mega Tote February 2, 2009 Filed under: crocheting/knitting — mandi628 @ 12:00 pm Here’s a mega tote I made out of plastic bags. Making the “plarn” out of the plastic bags is easy, and the site where I found this pattern has a great tutorial on how to do that. Here’s the link for the pattern. […]
Aug 10, 2011
[…] as one of my projects, during my summer vacation, I crocheted a reusable grocery bag using “The Ultimate Grocery Bag” pattern and plarn. As an avid knitter, I taught myself to crochet in order to complete the […]
Jan 21, 2012
[…] http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2008/07/19/the-ultimate-grocery-bag/ […]
May 10, 2013
[…] crochet this recycled tote bag you basically use my Ultimate Grocery Bag pattern and add the stripes using the red and blue plastic bags cut into plarn. I also changed up the […]
Jul 13, 2013
[…] used the ultimate plarn tote bag pattern to crochet the bag with just some minor changes. On round 3 at the curve of the ends, I crocheted 2 […]
Jul 20, 2014
[…] used my ultimate recycled grocery tote pattern to crochet this bag. I just added three rows with pink recycled plastic bags or plarn, one row with […]
Dec 31, 2017
This is a great idea. Love it.
Mar 11, 2019
I have made bunches of these for my neighbors! I am starting a blog called Paper Trail. It is all about reusing/recycling. My favorite medium to reuse is paper, but my blog will cover many different reusable materials. Could I please link this to my blog?
Thank you for the great patterns!
Mar 25, 2019
@Diane – Yes feel free to link back to my blog. I always appreciate links from other blogs and wish you well on your new blog site.