Woven Plastic Bag Bag

This is an easy way to recycle. It is a simple plastic bag bag that only requires a basic knowledge of two words: over and under. The only materials that you need can be found in almost any home and the end product is useful, not just something pretty that sits on a shelf.

Step 1: What You'll Need

For this bag you'll need:
1. An ample supply of plastic bags
2. Cardboard ( a little bit bigger than your finished bag)
3. Scissors
4. Yarn
5. Duct Tape (any color, I just happened to have teal)

Comments

[LadyLark]

Love this idea, but I am clearly doing something wrong. I followed all the instructions and wove the bags onto the cardboard. But after I cut the yarn and tied it and removed the bag from the cardboard, all I had was a woven tube. I must be missing the step where you close up the bottom of the bag. :/ Silly me. Please help! Thanks

[MichelleWrites]

I think what you need to do is cut the top but not the bottom. The bottom then has a continuous thread making the bottom. For this to look neat your first few rows need to be pressed down hard. This is based on weaving I did years ago but not with this particular project.

[janaro]

Hi
This is agood work I like it .

[holly14]

This is so good! We are doing a task at school where we have to make bags out of recycled materials so this is really great for me. I'm pretty sure I will use this technique :)

[=3]

Instead of yarn you could use plastic bag strips right? And would it possible to put a zipper on one of these some how because I want to make one of these as a pencil case for when I have to go back to school.

[Scriptone]

Wonderful idea, I was looking for something like this. I love how you figured out how to make the loom "lift" so you can zoom the shuttle through faster. thank you.

[dobbylvr]

Thanks.

[shophope]

Hi! I'm looking for ideas for a livelihood program for a small community in a slum area in paranaque. Think this can work?

[greatpanda]

 FWIW, the tool you're calling a "shuttle" is actually a "shed stick".  The space that it holds is the shed.  A shuttle is what you wrap yarn around to pass the weft back and forth through the shed.  I want to try this sometime, always too many bags lying around...

[digsretro]

Why not leave the bag strips as loops? Then you can connect them at each end by looping them the way you can connect two rubber bands together. Also you'd be weaving with double the thickness of 'yarn' so the weaving would go faster, I'm assuming. Note: I haven't tried this, I'm just talking theory... The bag looks really cool, though, good job! Karin in Orlando

[dobbylvr]

I don't leave my bag strips as loops becasue that makes them half as long, and I love continuing my colors onto the other side of the loom, I think it looks better that way. You're right though, it probably would make the weaving a lot faster!

[digsretro]

Well you could just attach the same color loop so the color would continue. And something I thought about later is that you wouldn't have all those little tab ends where you tied on another strip, making it look a little bit cleaner. :)

[carolatjando]

This is an awesome idea! Could you use the same concept with scraps of fabric as well? Also to "recycle?"

[dobbylvr]

Thanks! Yes, you can use this process with strips of almost anything. I've done it with fabric, yarn, and plastic bag, but there are many more possibilities!

[Darkshot]

Hi, i wanted to know...do you think that this awesome bag would be strong/soft enough for a 15,6" laptop????????? and how many bags do you think it would take?

[dobbylvr]

Hi! The bag by itself probably wouldn't be strong enough, though if you layered multiple bags it might work. Im not sure how many bags you would need but my guess would be at least 2.

[Darkshot]

Okay, thanks anyways, I got an old apple bag from my mom. This was from when my dad used to work there back in the day. :D free bags FTW!

[IdahoDavid]

Nice use for those bags everyone seems to accumulate. I work for a library and I can see this as a great craft for kids to make there own book bags. Well done.