quilted tote bag

Going off the idea of fused plastic bags, I decided to try quilting them together. I used plastic thread and with my free-motion foot, and did a rather tight stippling.

I layered three #2 bags over one #4 (#2 being grocery bag weight and #4 being shopping bags). I feel like the grocery bags look nicer as the top layer (besides I wanted to use as many grocery bags as possible) and the #4 bag makes it sturdier.

I stippled two stacks of plastic bags for my front and back. Afterward I just treated them like cloth, really stiff cloth. I trimmed the seam on the corners, so it would be nicer when I turned it right-side out.

Here's a shot of the front of the bag. The dragon came from an Asian market grocery bag. I just cut it out and stippled it down along with the rest of the plastic bags. (I did put a pin in it until it was secure).

Here's the inside of my bag.

I wasn't really thinking about hiding the printed material when I made this first bag. One thing to watch for when you're designing your bags is that print won't show when the bags are stacked. However, when the stitching squishes them together those logos just pop out!

I decided to make the handles out of quilted plastic bags as well. I didn't really like the way they feel. I guess they're sturdy enough, they just don't hold shape...

Max models the final product :-p

Summary: Quilting one stack of bags goes quickly, half hour at the most. The whole project could be finished in 2-3 hours. I used two #4 bags and 6.5 #2 bags (including the dragon cut from another bag). Cost is essentially nothing because all you need is bags, thread, and power to run the sewing machine.

Disposal: Well... I wasn't really thinking cradle to grave when I designed this bag... To recycle any part of this bag, the #2 and #4 bags (which are quilted together by millions of stitches) much be separated. So unless your a die-hard hippie, this thing is trash once it's no longer useful. Although you can patch it until the cows come home.