My Recycled Bags.com

Recycled Plastic Messenger Book Bag

I crocheted this messenger book bag from recycled plastic Safeway bags. People ask me all the time how many bags it takes to crochet different projects of mine. I did a calculation on this project as I crocheted it. I found that I used about 3 bags for two full rounds on the crocheted body of the bag. Therefore I used about 39 bags to crochet the main body of this book bag. Overall I recycled about 60 plastic bags to crochet the messenger book bag.

I cut my plarn about 1 inch wide using the looping method to create my plastic bag yarn.

I crocheted 26 rows in half double crochet (HDC) before starting the flap. For the flap, I crocheted 12 rows in HDC before starting the decreases for the tapered flap. I crocheted a total of 25 rows and then added a edging of single crochet stitching around the edges of the flap. By adding the single crochet stitches, it helps even out the edges and makes for a smooth finish to the flap.

I crocheted my strap even on 6 stitches wide for a 35 inch long strap.

The original crochet pattern for the messenger bag is found here. It’s a free plarn crochet pattern and I just tweaked it a bit to make this smaller book bag of 14″ wide by 11.5″ long. The original crochet pattern makes a

Brown Plarn Hobo Purse

The recycled plarn hobo purse is a pattern I adapted 10 years ago with permission from Dao over at ShortyLamCrochet Blogspot. I created the purse using recycled plastic bags or plarn for my pattern. You can find the crocheted plarn hobo pattern link here.

For this purse, I used a K (6.5 mm) crochet hook so it is a smaller size than the original pattern link. I started with chain 23 and did do one extra round of stitching before adding the final few rounds of decreasing at the top. Finished size of the purse is 9 inches wide by 7.5 inches long. For the strap, I braided 3 strands of plastic bag yarn together and then just attached the ends at the each side of the purse.

For a larger version of this same pattern, use