third woven totebag

Although I love the idea of woven strips (I think it looks very sophisticated) I was unhappy with the way this particular bag turned out. However, where I messed up you can succeed :-D



On my first attempt, I cut strips out of quilted plastic that I taped to a piece of cardboard in order to weave them.


Because I wanted a diagonal weave, my strips needed to be arranged diagonally. I trimmed my strips to square off my mat.


I used long pieces of tape along the side to hold the weave together until I could sew it. This could have worked, except that I only gave myself a half inch seam allowance on each side, and the tape showed in the final product.

Even if you give yourself ample seam allowance, I would still instigate a "no tape on the right side" rule!


On my second attempt, I cut two squares that had a inch seam allowance on each side. I left the seam allowance uncut on two sides to stabilize the weaving process without tape (or at least less tape...)

Here's the back of my two squares as I weave them together. I taped strips in place as I finished weaving them.


This form of weaving left me with an uneven square, which just didn't sew neatly.


This is my ideal (untested) diagram for how one would set up the weaving project. Cut on the gray diagonal lines. Hopefully having one square with uncut sections ALL the way around the woven areas will help keep things neat and square.

This was how I measured out my diagonal lines:

1) Lay the ruler so that it passes through one corner and makes an isosceles triangle, then mark off every inch (or other increment of your choosing).

2) Repeat for the other corner

3) Line up the ruler with each pair of marks and mark your lines

name quilts

My sisters, Emily and Elizabeth, are both December babies. I'm horrible at giving gifts on time, so a couple weeks after Christmas they will both receive two gifts, and they can decide which one is a birthday present and which one is the Christmas present :-P

This year "present one" is quilted name wall decorations. Most of the fabric for this project admittedly came straight from the store, however I also used fabric purchased at yard sales.

Oh! and the black binding on Elizabeth's quilt was originally part of the packaging for our futon, which we got from Soaring Heart (they were used as ties to keep the futon rolled up).


Here are the scraps generated by the creation of my name quilts. Hopefully I'll be able to minimize the amount of scrappage I produce in future projects. Mainly, I want to avoid cutting pieces too big and then having to trim the seam allowances.


Fearing the accumulation of these tiny scraps, I decided to make a scrappy block right away.

I added thin strips on top of my block base either during construction (by sewing the ends of a thin strip into neighboring seams) or afterward (by sewing a seam on top of the strip)

I was worried that the right blue border (it's four strips sewn together) would fall apart because the seams were open in some areas. I decided a couple lines of thread would add some much needed stability.

appliue on quilted totebag

Inspired by the weather of the Pacific Northwest, Rainy Day tote features a little person ready for stormy skies. The back and handles are made from black canvas.

After layering my base bags to create my blue background I picked out colored plastic bags to make my image from.

Because it's difficult to cut shapes out of plastic, I drew the shape I wanted on paper first and pinned it to plastic. Be sure to have at least one pin inside the lines of your drawing so that your template stays in place until you're done cutting.

If you're pinning your template to several layers of plastic (if you want to make more than one rain jacket for instance) I suggest pinning your layers together first before pinning the template on.

After pinning each segment of my image onto the bag base, I appliqued them on using a zig-zag stitch with matching thread.

I chose to applique my person onto the bag before quilting it because the some of the lines would need to be on top of my image.

Now my little person is happily secured to my bag. I chose to attach my raindrops after quilting because I wanted them on top of the seams.

I used a normal sewing machine foot (when I say normal I mean non-free motion foot) to make black diagonal lines about 1 1/2" to 2" apart. While tighter quilting is sturdier, 2" distances seem to be adequate.

The one big (dis)advantage of using opaque thread is that you will have to consider how your seams compliment the design.

Construction: This tote is 15” X 18.5” with 6” long handles. It required 4 grocery bags, 1 shopping bag, and enough canvas for the back and handles. Cost came to about $3.50 for the canvas. Straight line quilting and using a cloth back shortened the total project time, but I still spent a good couple of hours cutting out and appliquing my design. Thus the total project time was 3 1/2 hours or so.

Performance: Unfortunately the plastic front is vunerable to snagging on objects. Only one or two layers will tear, but this can still be tragic. It hasn't been weight-tested yet, but I'd bet that it will hold up pretty well thanks to the canvas back.

Disposal: Again quilting different types of plastic together complicates recycling. However the canvas can be easily removed for reuse.

layering plastic bags

I thought some of my avid readers might benefit from seeing how I construct my plastic bag stacks before quilting. For the first layer, I start with my #4 shopping bag, cutting off the side seams to help it lay flat.

I want my top layer to be print free, so I went ahead and cut out the logo. When I use this as my top layer I'll rotate the bag so that the holes don't overlap.

While I could recycle the removed text, I would rather use the plastic as a lower layer. There are three strategies to making logos less recognizable:

1) hiding print underneath other layers

2) fracturing logos (I cut this one in half diagonally)

3) overlapping and rotating text


Notice how the text is upside down, backwards, or sideways on this layer.


I added a couple more plastic bags as the next layer. I cut the whole bags in half along the logo.

Finally I add my text-free top layer. You can also see the color palette I've gathered to create the design. I'm planning a person in yellow rain slicker holding a red umbrella :-)

plastic jewelery

Stephanie from Garbage of Eden Designs creates jewelery from plastic bags.

These earrings were made by sewing plastic thread into a circle.

Using this same method we could make rugs, place mats, embellishments for tote bags, potentially we could even make bowls. Like a fruit bowl, since you really couldn't eat from it.

Plastic thread could also be used in embroidery; I'm thinking especially the couching stitch. Mary Corbet has some instructions on basic embroidery stitches: scroll to the bottom for couching.



This bangle was made by wrapping plastic yarn around a cut section of a yogurt container. Actually you probably wouldn't want to use plastic yarn, and instead either cut the bag so it was one continuous strip or attach each strip to the base. Otherwise there will be knots where the strips are connected.

Wrapping is a great way to redecorate old items. Just make sure that all of the strips or cords are well secured so it doesn't look like a mess after a year.

second woven tote bag

Here I am, enjoying the fine craftsmanship of my second attempt at weaving plastic.

After my frustrating experience with the cardboard loom, I broke down and bought myself a Easy Weaver (paid for by generous Christmas/birthday money from relatives. Thank-you!). The thing runs $120, but is an absolute joy to weave on.

I went through all of the trouble and heartache of threading the warp with plastic thread, which is especially difficult on the Easy Weaver because the yarn attachment mechanism is Velcro. And yes, it was as much of a mess as it looks.

I tried three different materials for the weft, determined to make my plastic thread warp work. From bottom to top: plastic thread, wool yarn, and plastic yarn.

The problem was the same with all three materials. I couldn't use the rigid heddle to beat the weft into place because it would catch on bumps in the plastic thread when I tried moving it at all. Utter failure :'-(

After undoing all of my hard work (and the first ever project on my brand new expensive loom), I gritted my teeth and tried again. I threaded the warp with wool yarn this time.

(btw as a vegan I don't normally use wool, but I couldn't find any looms that didn't come prethreaded with wool yarn)

Using normal yarn for the warp and plastic thread for the weft worked like a dream. It's hard to tell that the weft is even plastic. To keep the ends from unraveling, I did a quick zig-zag stitch on both ends (above).


While I'm sure that the woven piece is strong enough to be a bag by itself, I have more confidence in canvas material. As such, I sewed canvas border on both of my woven pieces before sewing them into a bag.

here is the finished tote sitting on my sewing table.

Summary: Weaving two 13 1/2 inch by 17inch pieces took 2-3 hours. The whole project took 3-4 hours with total dimensions of 16" X 18" with 8" long handles. I used about 15 plastic bags, but I don't know how much wool yarn (a lot) I used. Cost was around $122 for me, but assuming you already own a loom cost is about $10 ($2 for the cloth, and $8 for the yarn).

Performance: This bag has been weight-tested at 5lbs on a half hour walk home. It could probably hold more, but I'm not sure my shoulder could take it :-p

Disposal: This is another difficult bag to recycle... You'd have to tear apart the weave to separate the plastic from the wool. The wool could be composted, the plastic recycled, and the fabric downcycled into rags.

spinning plastic yarn into plastic thread

Here is my ball of plastic yarn that I started with...
...and here it is after I finished spinning it. So you can tell that the spun plastic yarn (hereafter referred to as plastic thread) is a lot thinner. One thing I considered after weaving with plastic thread is that it will leave gaps in the weave (conversely, squishy plastic yarn will expand to fill-up the space between weft threads).

I used a very "sophisticated" model of spindle, shown above, made from a pencil, a spool of beading wire, an earring back, and duck tape. I did visit a specialty yarn store, but spindles run about $20 a piece.

A general rule with spindles is that the heavier the spindle, the finer (or more tightly spun) the final product. My homemade spindle is really light and worked fine.


Yes there is a hole in my sweater, I'll fix it once it bothers me :-)

Now moving on, the spinning theory is very straightforward. It took me about twenty minutes to get into the rhythm of it, so I'd say spinning is easy to pick up.

Megan LaCore made a great youtube tutorial on spinning wool that I used to get started. I did find, however, that plastic yarn doesn't want to take the twist. I solved this by agitating the plastic yarn by rubbing it between my fingers first.

So one hand spins the spindle while the other one agitates the plastic yarn as the twist moves up the yarn.

Summary: I found spinning to be a great watching TV activity. I spun ten plastic bags worth of plastic yarn in 45 minutes more or less.

Rockstar quilted totebag

I made a second quilted tote bag because the first one was so much fun :-D

I layered tan grocery bags on top of a single #4 shopping bag. The yellow stripes are strips from a newspaper bag, and the star is from a Macy's bag.

I tried cutting the shape of the handle of out the bag itself, but found this looked unfinished and fragile (even though I hemmed the edges). To make the bag gift-worthy I added a cloth border. As an added bonus the red cloth really makes the star pop!

While the recipient of this tote liked the depth that the text added, I have always avoided items with logos. So naturally I was disappointed at how well the print showed through the layers.

When I was arranging my layers, the top bag covered print from the bottom layers; however the quilting process squishes all of the layers together allowing everything to show.

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.

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...)