Upcycle your old plastic bags into a water bottle holder. It’s easy to crochet this handy little water bottle holder from recycled plastic bags and of course it’s an excellent eco-friendly green craft idea. First you make your plarn or plastic bag yarn as shown here.
The base of this holder is the same as my can cozy project that I crocheted recently. I just added another row on the cozy and then crocheted the strap to finish off the water bottle holder. This holder is designed with a 3″ round bottom and holds either a small water bottle or reusable beverage container.
Just click on the green more button to view the free crochet pattern for this green crafting project.
April 22 is Earth Day and the kickoff of the beginning of the Green Generation Campaign over at Blogger’s Unite. Let’s all celebrate this great day by Recycling, Reusing, or Repurposing. These are my favorite three Rs. I try very hard to live by them and while nobody is perfect, maybe today we can really dedicate ourselves to the cause. Anyone who reads this site on a consistent bases knows that it’s a crafting site which uses recycled materials most of the time. Yes I love to crochet and at times share projects that aren’t necessarily recycled or green but are fun and frugal. That’s the joy of crafting. It’s the use of ones spare time to create something special that isn’t available at any retail store.
But maybe you aren’t a crafter and want to recycle all those old vcr or cassette tapes. Check out this link to GreenDisk and you can choose to use your own box (20 lbs or less) and it costs only $6.95 for the Technotrash Pack-IT. Put all your tapes in there and ship them off. What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to recycle those old tapes and save them from the landfill.
If you are a crafter, then consider making your own plarn and crochet something wonderful from trash. You can check out all my free patterns here. I offer everything from grocery tote bags made from plastic bags to potholders and purses created from reused denim jeans to clutches crocheted from repurposed cassette tapes.
So on this Earth Day 2009, please enjoy our Earth and remember the three Rs. Recycling, Reusing, and Repurposing. It’s a great way to preserve this wonderful Earth that we all love and have a great time green crafting too!
Here is my first full-sized round ripple or RR as most crocheters refer to this wonderfully shaped afghan. This was crocheted using Aggie May’s RR pattern from Crochetville. I used some scrap yarn and added some Red Heart Super Saver skeins to complete my RR. This is going to be a gift for my Mother’s upcoming birthday. I know it’s not a recycled bag but I just wanted to share my RR as it was so much fun to crochet!
Click to supersize photos
I added the edging as shown above to my completed RR. The edging was done by repeating the following stitches:
Ch 3, double crochet (Dc) in same stitch, then skipping one stitch and slip stitching (sl st) in the next stitch. Just keep repeating around your RR evenly. Make sure that the Ch 3, Dc are always at the top point of the ripple. You may have to skip two stitches occasionally to get it even especially at the top points.
I love felting and here is my latest crocheted tote bag. It is crocheted with 100% wool yarn and then felted on the hottest setting in my washer for about 18 minutes. It really sunk from the original size before felting which was 17″ wide x 18″ long to the finished size of 11″ wide x 12″ long. I added a felted flower to the flap along with a magnetic closure.
Click to super-size any of these photos
Closeup of the tote bottom
Here is a photo of the wide bottom of my tote bag. By adding the increase stitches as you crochet the beginning of bag, the bottom is able to extend and have a flatter surface. After you felt the bag, make sure to form the bottom so it dries in the correct shape so that your tote bag can stand up on the flat bottom. Enjoy the free pattern!
Felted Flower Tote Bag Pattern
Materials needed:
8 ozs Lion Brand Dark Teal 100% Wool Yarn (3 oz skeins)
1.7 ozs Caron Variegated Adobe 100% Wool Yarn
1 Magnetic button closure
Hook: H (5 mm) U.S. size metal hook
Description: Felted Blue Striped Tote Bag with Flower Closure
After felting bag measures 11 inches wide and 12 inches long with 27 inch straps
Directions:
Ch 55
It’s been quite a while since I crocheted with cassette tape and created a recycled bag from it. So I figured I’d better break out some of those old tapes that I have been storing and get busy with a new recycled craft project. I call this the clam shell clutchClam Shell Cassette Tape Clutch Pattern
Clutch measures 10 inches wide and 5-1/2 inches long at mid point.
Materials:
2 cassette tapes (60 min. tapes)
1 ball Lion Brand Trellis Pastel Garden lacy ribbon yarn (1-1/2 ozs)
1 Velcro button
1 Gold button for embellishment
Hook: Metal J (6 mm) crochet hook
Ch 10 using 2 strands of cassette tape and one strand of Lion Brand yarn.
Pattern is crocheted using 3 strands of material held together throughout project.
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