Mark your milk jug as shown and use a sharp pair of scissors to cut away the top and handle portion of the jug.

My first attempt was done free hand and I found it difficult to get my shape even when I marked the jug for cutting. I made this little template below and used it as a guide for marking the jug on my 2nd attempt. Just hold it up to the milk jug to help you mark the shape for your cuts.

It’s very important that you cut up high to the top of the milk jug opening to get the curved flap area for your lunch box. I used a small sharp nail to push the holes through on the plastic to create the folds for the flaps. My milk jug had a natural line molded in the plastic that I used for the line for my holes. Once the holes are punched, you can fold over the flaps along the punched edges.

The original recycled craft project called for a Velcro closure but I wanted to create a simple closure using some spare buttons I had on hand along with a scrap of yarn.

Here is my first completed lunch box. As you can see the top flap doesn’t curve over enough for a good closure.

I finished off my lunch box container using a small button and a bit of yarn. I just used a small nail to push through the plastic to create the holes for my button and for the yarn tie. I threaded a small piece of cotton yarn through the hole in the front and tied a knot on the inside to secure the tie. Then you just use the yarn tie to wrap around the button to close your lunch box.

Here is 2nd finished recycled milk jug box. The flap curls over the outside nicely and makes a great way to recycle an old milk jug into something new and reusable.
[…]

In this new batch of soap, I made a more concentrated soap by using less water. It’s still liquidy but not so watery which I like much better. I tweaked the original recipe and this is my newest recipe for a more concentrated homemade laundry soap.

Supplies:
Large metal cooking pot at least 4 quarts or bigger
2 gallon plastic bucket for final soap container
1/2 bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team borax powder
6-7 drops of essential oil (Optional)

Directions:
Grate 1/2 of the bar of Fels-Naptha soap and place in cooking pot. Add 6 cups water and heat gently over low to medium-low heat stirring occasionally until the soap melts. Turn heat to low, add the washing soda and the borax stirring until all ingredients are dissolved.

Pour 4 cups of very hot water into the plastic bucket. Now quickly add the cooked soap mixture to the plastic bucket mix and stir well. I added 6-7 drops of lemon essential oil to the mix at this point. This is an optional ingredient but the bit of oil gave my final soap just a hint of fragrance. Now add 1 gallon of hot water to the plastic bucket mix and stir well again. Let the soap mixture sit at least 24 hours to gel.

This recipe resulted in a much less watery soap mix and I use 1/3 cup of soap in my top-loading large washer. For best results I place the soap in the washer and use a little hot water to dissolve the soap before placing my clothes into the washer. As a reminder this soap can be used for stain treatments by either pre-soaking or spot treat the stain directly with a small amount of soap before washing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[…]

It was fun and interesting as I went back over the nearly 5 years of patterns and posts that I have created here at my blog. I had forgotten about some of the older less used patterns as well as re-visiting the early creations I made with recycled materials.

So without further ado here is My Pattern Links page. I hope you enjoy using it and find it easier to locate my many different patterns that I provide free here at My Recycled Bags.[…]

After researching and reading many blog posts about making ones own laundry soap, I settled on the recipe that uses washing soda, borax, and Fels-Naptha bar soap. There are many different recipes with a few different changes for each homemade laundry soap if you research it. I followed this blog’s homemade laundry recipe to make my laundry soap using the following supplies to make a 2 gallon bucket of soap.

Supplies:
Large metal cooking pot at least 4 quarts or bigger
2 gallon plastic bucket for final soap container
1/3 bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team borax powder

Directions:
Grate 1/3 of the bar of Fels-Naptha soap and place in cooking pot. Add 6 cups water and heat gently over low to medium-low heat stirring occasionally until the soap melts. Remove from heat. Then add the washing soda and the borax stirring until all ingredients are dissolved.

Pour 4 cups hot water into the plastic bucket. Now add the cooked soap mixture to the plastic bucket mix and stir well. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water to the plastic bucket mix and stir well again. Let the soap mixture sit at least 24 hours to gel. It doesn’t gel to a firm consistency but more like a runny egg white. I use about a half of a cup of soap to wash in my extra large top loader washer. The soap works great on spots too if you just apply a bit to any stains on your clothes.

Below you will find additional photos that show each step from above. Click on any photo to super-size it.

Here is 1/3 of a Fels Naptha bar of soap grated and ready for the cooking stage.

6 cups of water added for the cooking stage.

Homemade laundry soap with all water added and stirred in bucket.

Final result of laundry soap after setting up for 2 days.

Bottom line on this homemade soap — I love it. It works well and if you add a half cup of white vinegar to your final rinse cycle you won’t have any static cling and my line-dried clothes were soft too. I do think when I make this again I will cut down on the water to make a more concentrated soap. My final soap mix was a bit too runny but still works fine. I think if you add just the 1 gallon of water at the end and eliminate the last 6 cups of water, you would end up with a much better consistency of soap. Also this laundry soap is a low sudsing soap so don’t be alarmed when you don’t see […]

After looking around the Internet, I read several different tips on how I might do the blocking but nothing with photos. Well as I’m a visual type person, I wanted photos with step-by-step instructions. After reading a few ideas, I set out on my own and created my own picture tutorial for blocking my rumpled-up afghan.

Here is my round ripple baby afghan before blocking. As you may see, the center is all rumped up and isn’t laying flat at all.

I put down a plastic garbage bag on the carpet and then placed my afghan on it. I gently stretched the points and center and then pinned it down into the carpet to flatten it. Put your pins in at an angle to hold down your blanket as you stretch it. Push down on the center to flatten it further and move your pins to stretch the afghan until it is laying down as flat as you can get it.

Next dampen your afghan with a wet cloth or use a spray bottle to gently wet the material. With the cloth or your hand, flatten the center down and move the pins as needed to stretch the blanket flat. Move the wet cloth around as shown to moisten the yarn so it blocks evenly.

After dampening and flattening your afghan, allow it to dry completely before removing the pins and moving the blanket off the plastic. The next day my blanket was dry so I removed all the pins and the blocking was very successful as this baby afghan is relatively flat and looks much better now.

I hope you find this blocking tutorial useful. Blocking can be a great way to fix those round ripple and star afghans that just don’t like to lay flat after you finish them. Take heart and try my blocking tutorial to fix your projects should you need a little flattening. […]

Here is the link for the original soda tab crochet pattern that my bracelets were based upon. My friend Kristy created a video which was really helpful for me to understand how to assemble the bracelet using the recycled soda pop tabs. You can view Kristy’s video tutorial below.

I used 12 tabs on one bracelet and 13 on the next one to make it a bit larger. I also added a leaf to the one stitch on the top bracelet. The original pattern calls for 12-14 tabs. Just check the fit of your bracelet as outlined in the video for the correct number needed for your project. […]

I use old egg cartons for my base and then add bits of burnable materials such wood shaving from a chain saw, pencil sharpener, or a miter saw. I put some wood shavings in the bottom of the egg carton holes and then added bits of cut up cardboard and scraps of cut up yarn. The added scraps of materials make your fire starters easier to light and help the burning process to produce a great fire starter.

Next I melted leftover wax from an old candle in the glass container it came in. I placed the glass jar in some water in a sauce pan. Over gentle heat, warm the wax until it melts. I added more bits of old wax to the jar as needed to cover the materials in my egg cartons. I used an old spoon to dribble the wax over each fire starter in the egg carton.
Click on photos to supersize

I added some lint from my dryer in one egg carton set as shown above. Dryer lint burns well and is a wonderful material to use for making fire starters.

I dribbled more wax over my fire starters and here is the final results. Now just separate the individual filled egg holders from each other which results in 12 very wonderful fire starters.

Closeup of the finished fire starters made from recycled materials.[…]

Here is my finished product with the lining sewn inside the t-yarn oven mitt. This lining project would work for any crocheted or knitted oven mitt.

The first step in this lining project is to lay out and cut your lining fabric and heat protection material. I used some scrap fabric that I had on hand along with a piece of Insul-Bright insulation material. Insul-Bright is an inexpensive material that provides heat protection and is designed for use in oven mitt and potholder projects. You just need enough fabric to cut out two oven mitt shapes and one shape from the insulation material. You need to cut out two thumbs from the printed lining fabric and the insulation material.

Next step is to lay your finished oven mitt on the material and cut out around the edges allowing for a hem. Leave extra fabric at the top where the oven mitt opens so you can fold it over and machine stitch a hem. Assemble the pieces with right sides together for the print fabric and the insulation material on the outside of the fabric pieces as shown.

Baste stitch around your pieces and test the fit of your lining inside the finished oven mitt to make sure it fits. If your lining glove is too big, just stitch around the inside of your basting to make it smaller. I had to do this to get my fit right. Pin the lining glove inside your mitt to make sure the lining fit is right before doing your final machine stitching around the edges. Don’t worry about attaching the thumb right now, it is added later. Once the lining glove shell is stitched and your fit is good, trim close to stitching to cut away excess material on the lining.

Click on any photo to supersize

I basted and machine stitched the thumb pieces with right sides of fabric on the inside and then place the insulation material on the outside on both sides of the fabric. Test the fit of your thumb piece inside the finished oven mitt thumb area as shown. Again if its too big, just stitch around the edges again to make the thumb lining piece fit properly inside the oven mitt.

Next step is to add your thumb piece and mark its attachment onto the lining glove shell. Once you have your trimmed thumb piece you want to mark the place where you need to attach it to the lining. I marked the opening using the finished oven mitt and the lining piece as my guide. Check your opening carefully before cutting. Because I used Insul-Bright material only on one side of the lining, mark your opening on the side that […]

First step is to take the newspaper bag which measures 7-1/2″ wide x 21″ long and flatten it out.
Click on any photo to supersize

Step 2 is to fold it in half lengthwise.

Step 3 is to fold it once more lengthwise. Now you are ready for the cutting stage.

Step 4 you cut strips 1 inch wide across the short length of the bag. This creates 1 inch wide loops of plastic.

Step 5 is closeup of the 1 inch wide plarn loops. Because the end is sealed off, cut a very thin strip at the end of bag to open up the last loop.

Step 6 shows how you interconnect the loops and then pull the knot tight.

If you cut the strips about 1 inch wide, it will result in about 19 loops per newspaper bag. Once joined together, this nets about 3-3/4 yards of plastic bag yarn per newspaper bag. Continue to add loops to your chain of plarn rings to make your recycled plastic bag yarn for whatever crafting project you may have in mind.[…]

I have chosen one of my favorite patterns and will illustrate how to work plastic bag yarn or plarn in the round. Here is my signature recycled bag purse pattern which is crocheted in the round.

The first step is to chain 26 for this particular pattern.

Hdc in 2nd chain from hook and in each stitch down to the end.

At end of the row, you turn the corner now.

Hdc in the next stitch around the backside of original chain.

Continue Hdc in each stitch along the backside of original chain.

End of the first complete round with Hdc’s in both sides of chain.

Closeup of the end of the first round.

Work now into the next stitch as you round the corner.

Hdc into the next stitch as you continue around the corner for round 2.

End of first half of round 2.

Continue around the corner again to complete round 2.

Continue Hdc in each stitch to complete round 2.

End of round 2 complete now as shown. Note how there is two rounds of Hdc stitches on either side of the original chain. Continue working in the round as the pattern calls for.

I hope this picture tutorial has helped show how to work plarn in the round. You can click on any photo to supersize it and give you a close up of each step as I have outlined it in this picture tutorial. […]