woven totebag

While there are many things you could make with woven plastic bag mats (rugs, place mats, door mats, truck bed liner, cushioned storage bags, insert your idea here) I chose to make a tote bag.


I don't have a good plastic/cloth tote bag tutorial for you (I guess that I should make one...), but here is a simple cloth tote bag tutorial for all of those people who need some help getting starting.







The first part is simple, use a yarn needle (it has a big eye and blunt tip) to sew the sides of the mats together with plastic yarn.

At this point you could also sew up the bottom, add a handle, and call it done. However, I wanted my bag to be sturdier and not have those tied-off ends hanging out. Although it is rather shabby-chic... no who am I kidding, it looks horrible :-P

My solution, as you saw above, was to sew canvas material onto the top, bottom, and sides. My sewing machine had no problems going through the woven mat, but I wouldn't try going through two mats at once.

Summary: This project took 7-8 hours all together. Besides the time-consuming cardboard loom weaving, I also embroidered over some ugly seams. Because the weave is loose I wouldn't suggest using this bag for small items, but it would work well as a grocery bag. The material cost was $3.00, which was for fabric and embroidery floss. I haven't weight tested it yet, but will update the post when I have that data.

Disposal: When it comes time to retire this lovely tote bag, it should be fairly easy to 1) rip the seams, 2) recycle the plastic mats, and 3) reuse the cloth. The cloth should not be composted because of it's chemical content, but can be downcycled into rags (i.e. rag rug, dish cloth...)