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 a quick and easy little crochet project for all those green crafters who love recycling trash into treasures. It’s a handy can cozy that can be used for a soda or beer can. Keep your favorite beverage cold and save some plastic bags from the landfill all at the same time.
This project is completed by creating plastic bag yarn by cutting about 9 recycled plastic sacks into strips. If you are not familiar with the process, I have a picture tutorial found here that gives you all the details on creating plarn.
So grab those plastic bags and crochet yourself a recycled plastic can cozy today!
Free Crocheted Can Cozy Pattern
Materials needed:
Blue and white plastic bags cut into strips 1 inch wide and interlocked to create plarn to crochet with. (Approx. 7 blue bags and 2 white bags)
Hook:
J (6 mm) size metal crochet hook
Description:
Recycled Plastic Can Cozy – measures 3 inches wide and 4-1/2 inches tall
Directions:
Using blue plarn, Ch 4 and join with a Sl St to form a ring.
It’s time to crochet some recycled Easter egg baskets for the upcoming holiday. I want to share my latest creation which is a mini Easter egg basket. It holds one egg and can be used as unique gift idea. Fill your plastic egg with something special or simply place your gift inside the mini basket. The link to the free crochet pattern for the mini Easter egg basket is found here.
Here is a large recycled Easter basket that I made last year. This durable basket is crocheted from some special purple plastic bags that a friend from Crochetville mailed to me. I know purple bags are hard to come by but even using recycled white plastic grocery bags can create just as cute of a Easter basket. Simply add a colorful ribbon bow tie to spruce up your basket as I did with the mini Easter egg basket project.
Here is the free pattern link for the large plastic basket below.
Spring is just around the corner and this crocheted granny square motif tote brings out the best of recycled crafting with a colorful Spring theme. The motifs are crocheted from recycled plastic bags in six different colors to create a unique panel for each side of the tote bag.
Click to supersize any photos
Motifs before assembly and side shot of finished tote
Think Spring so it hopefully gets here soon as this snow and ice is getting old. Enjoy this recycled bag project and happy green crafting to all!
Free Colorful Motif Tote Pattern
Materials needed:
One large ball of White plastic bag yarn Plarn approx. 35 bags
Plastic bags in each of the center colors: blue, yellow, wine, pink, orange and green
Hooks: N (9 mm) and J (6 mm) U.S. size metal crochet hooks
Size: Approx. 4″ Motif if using 1 inch strips of cut plastic bags
Finished Tote bag measurements: 14-1/2″ wide, 10″ tall, 3″ depth, 8 inch handles
With N hook Ch 4 with center color, Sl St to form ring.
Here is the long awaited recycled baseball cap. It’s crocheted from plastic grocery bags made into plarn. This ball cap fits snuggly on my head and actually looks better on my head than this picture shows. I added some ribbon but you can add many different embellishments to spice up your hat.
Anyway if you want a cool recycled hat, try out this project.
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Free Recycled Ball Cap Pattern
Materials needed:
One ball of Plarn approx. 20 bags
12 inch piece of ribbon
Hook: N (9 mm) USA size metal hook
Description: Recycled Ball Cap – 21-1/2″ around cap base
Directions:
Ch 3 and join with a Sl St to form a ring.
I’m back to share this colorful crocheted recycled tote bag. It’s been awhile since I completed a bread bag project and I’m excited to share this free pattern with you all. In this project I used plastic bread bags including bagel bags, taco shells, pita bread, muffin bags, hot dog and hamburger bun bags.
All the different recycled plastic bags makes for a very colorful and unique tote. This tote bag features a sturdy bottom made with half double crochet stitches and then an open netting type stitching for the main body of the bag. This recycled plastic bag project would make an excellent market tote or beach bag.
(Click to Supersize Photos)
Free Recycled Bread Bag Tote Pattern
Bag measures 12 inches wide and 13 inches long with 6 inch handles
Materials: Bread bags cut into 1/2 inch wide strips to create plarn (Appox. 50 bags)
Picture tutorial is found here on how to make plastic bags into plarn (plastic bag yarn)
Hook:
Metal N (9 mm) crochet hook
Chain 24
Here is a quick fused plastic bag craft idea for Valentine’s Day. This project involves no sewing or crocheting. It’s makes a perfect kid’s craft project that focuses on using recycled materials. This project was inspired by a recent comment I received from someone who wanted a recycled bag for Valentine’s day but didn’t know how to crochet. So here’s what I came up with. By using some pieces of red and white recycled plastic bags, some scrap yarn, a bit of ribbon and a small remnant of red felt, you or your children can put together this cute Valentine’s heart bag.
Below you will find the picture tutorial that I made while I was creating this little Valentine’s heart bag. Here is the step-by-step picture tutorial on how to DIY.
I’ve been working on a new WordPress template for awhile now and finally have it launched here at My Recycled Bags. I hope you’ll take a moment to look around and see what you think of my new template. I am still working on getting a custom logo but for now am just using this one that was made with the help of some friends over at BlogCatalog. There are a few things that I’m still tweaking but for now I wanted to get the new template up so everyone could see it. A special thanks to my son William who has spent many hours helping me get this live.
This is also a special day, as today is my 2 year blog anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been two years already since that first post back on January 24, 2007. But they do say time flies when you are having fun and I’m definitely having fun sharing my recycled crafting ideas at this blog.
So for now — Welcome to the new My Recycled Bags site. I hope you enjoy the new look!
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