I present my latest creation — Variegated plastic bag yarn or plarn as it so commonly is known as in the crafting world. Pink, orange, and white plastic bags were used to crochet this variegated recycled bag. The pink and orange bags are plastic bags that newspapers are delivered in and the white is from just regular retail bags. I used these 3 colors to create my variegated look by assembling 3 loops of pink plarn, 2 white loops, 3 orange loops, and 2 white loops, then repeat this order for the variegated look. Here is my plarn making tutorials for creating yarn from newspaper or retail plastic bags should you need to see how to make plastic yarn.
This plarn ball was made using newspaper and retail bags together to create the variegated colored yarn. As I outlined below, if color pooling becomes a problem just add another white strip of plarn to offset the pooling. I found if I added an additional white strip to the 2 white ones, it solved the pooling issues with the tote bag as I crocheted it.
Enjoy the free crochet pattern below and happy crafting to all!
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Variegated Plarn Tote Bag Pattern
Materials needed:
Plastic bag yarn “Plarn” – Approx. 50 white plastic grocery bags along with 20 pink and 20 orange plastic bags for the variegated yarn
This variegated plarn is created by assembling 3 loops of pink plarn, 2 white loops, 3 orange loops, and then 2 white loops, repeat pattern for variegated look.
Hook: “N” (9 mm) size metal hook
Description: Recycled Plastic Tote Bag
Bag standing up measures 14” wide and 11” tall with 12” handles
with measurements flat 17″ across, 12″ high, and 11″ long base.
Directions:
The bottom of bag is crocheted with just plain white bags. Using just white plarn, Ch 20.
Rnd 1
Sc in 2nd ch from hook and in ea chain st down to end. Continue around other side of chain by working a Sc in ea st to other end. […]
I crocheted these scrubbies using recycled plastic bags that were cut into plarn. It reminds me so much of sea coral that I just had to call the scrubbers scrubbie coral. The inspiration for these scrubbies came from my friend Kristy who shared her cotton scrubbies at her blog Texiles4you.
People ask me all the time about the amount of plarn created by each plastic bag and while it may differ with one type of plastic bag to another, I found the standard white retail bags yield me about 7 yards of plarn when cut them 1″ wide and assembled using the looping method. The orange plastic newspaper bags provided me with 6 yards due to their smaller size.
With that in mind, you need 4 plastic bags to make each one of these scrubbies. The white scrubbies were crocheted just 4 rounds. I found I liked a bigger scrubbie so I crocheted the orange one five full rounds. By crocheting 5 rounds you use all of the plarn created from the 4 plastic bags where the smaller scrubbers only use a little over 3 bags.
You will find as your crochet each round that it begins to twist which is normal. The more rounds you crochet, the more twist you get. Have fun with the colors and mix and match them. I plan to crochet more of these scrubbies and add a different color just on the final round which should create an even more unique coral look for the scrubbies.
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Plarn Scrubbie Coral Pattern
Materials needed:
Plastic bag yarn “Plarn” – 4 plastic bags cut into 1 inch wide strips
as shown in my plarn making tutorial
Hook: “N” (9 mm) size metal hook
Description: Recycled Plastic Scrubbie
Scrubbies are about 3-1/2 – 4″ wide depending on if you do 4 or 5 rounds
Directions:
Rnd 1
Ch 2 and work 8 Sc in the 2nd ch from hook. Do not join and continue working in rounds. Use a stitch marker if necessary so you know where each round starts.
Rnd 2
Work 2 Sc in each st.
Rnd 3-5
Work 3 Sc in ea st.
Option: For a smaller scrubbie, crochet just 4 rounds.
If you have any questions or find discrepancies in this pattern, please email me using contact tab above.
Abbreviations:
Ch – Chain
Ea – Each
FO – Finish Off
Hdc – Half Double Crochet
Inc – Increase
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. ©2011
****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 […]
Creating plaid using recycled plastic bags has been on my to-do list for quite some time. This last week I finally set out on what I call my plaid plarn project. I wanted to keep it simple and small as I found making a plaid design with recycled plastic bags very challenging. It was a trial and error project which needed to be tackled on a small item until I could prefect my process. Needless to say, I got a bit frustrated but finally came up with this little wallet as my finished product.
Crocheting the surface chaining is a bit challenging to get the stripes straight. I had to work a few stitches a bit off to get my vertical stripe to look somewhat straight. Below is my piece once I was finished. It’s not perfect but that is the beauty of working with recycled crafts, it doesn’t have to be perfect. You are creating something new from trash so there is always beauty is each finished product. Hope you enjoy this plaid plarn project and remember it doesn’t have to be perfect for you to enjoy your wallet.
Plaid Plarn Wallet Pattern
Materials needed:
One ball of white plastic bags cut into plarn about ¾” wide
Small amount of salmon pink newspaper bags cut into plarn about ¾” wide
Here is my link for plarn making tutorials for newspaper and retail plastic bags.
1) 1/2” button
Hooks:
“J” (6 mm) size metal crochet hook
“H” (5 mm) size metal crochet hook for button loop
Description: Plaid plastic wallet
Wallet measures 5” wide and 9-1/2” tall
with 2” long flap
Directions:
Using J hook with white plarn, Ch 17.[…]
This week I crocheted a little bucket basket from recycled pink newspaper bags. I created this bucket basket as a gift to my local library for saving all the plastic newspaper bags they receive their newspapers in daily. Each week I pick up these bags and use them in my recycled crafting projects. I feel so fortunate to get these beautiful and uniquely colored bags.
I recycled this jam container for my plastic bag crafting project. As outlined in the pattern below, you insert the plastic jam container inside the crocheted plarn bucket. Once finished, I filled the bucket with candy and presented it to my local library staff. This was their first time really seeing a finished product I crafted from their recycled plastic bags. I think they were happily surprised to see something pretty as well as useful made from their old newspaper bags that I collect from them.
So I hope I have inspired you and you will give this recycled crochet basket project a go. Best wishes and happy green crafting to all!
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Plarn Bucket Basket Pattern
Materials:
One ball of pink plarn (plastic bag yarn) Appox. 20 bags
3 white plastic bags for edging
1 recycled jam container (4” wide by 4” tall used)
Hook: Metal “J” (6 mm) US size hook
Description: Crochet basket measures 4 inches wide and 4” tall with 8” handle
Directions:
Ch 4 and join with a sl st to form a ring.[…]
This week I present my first pop tab tote bag project. I was asked to create a tote bag using soda pop pull tabs and recycled plastic bags by a member of my Trash to Treasures group on Ravelry. I have been saving soda pop tabs and beer pull tabs so I could complete this project. It took 252 tabs for my bag. I decided that I would alternate rounds so that it didn’t take so many tabs to do this bag. Plus I like the look of the plastic bags by themselves to separate the pull tab rounds.
I used cotton cord on the base of the bag to give it a sturdy bottom and also on the handles. I found if I wrapped the plastic bag yarn (plarn) around the cord as I crocheted around it, it hides the white cord better. As you may see in the closeup pictures of the base, the first few rows I didn’t wrap it as close as I did in later rounds. The later rounds look better and the white cotton cord doesn’t really show through. I found if I wound the plastic around the cord in small sections and then crocheted around the cord, it worked best to keep the plastic tighter and uniform.
Hope you enjoy this free crochet pattern. Happy 4th of July to everyone!
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Free Plarn Pop Tab Bag Pattern
Materials needed:
One ball of plastic bag yarn “Plarn”
(Approx. 50 plastic newspaper bags cut into 1″ strips of plarn)
252 Soda pull-tabs
4 yards – 12/32 (9.5 mm) Cotton cord
Hook: “J” U.S. size metal hook
Description: Plastic Bag & Pop Tab Tote Bag
Bag measures 12” wide and 10” long with 18” straps
Directions:
Ch 20 loosely.[…]
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