Crocheted bag from Recycled Plastic Bags - Tutorial

This is a great recycling idea and something fun and practical to make.
This bag was crocheted by Jenni and made from a mix of recycled and used plastic shopping bags. There is a really cool method of cutting the bags up which you just have to see. So here is my pictorial tutorial of making a bag from recycled shopping bags.

1) Lay the bag flat and cut off the bottom seam

2) Cut the top off the bag as well.

3) Lay the bag in front of you with the folded seams on the top and bottom.

4) Leave 2 cm at the top and fold the bag upwards in half.

5) Fold up in half again....and again...

... until it looks like this.

Don't forget to leave 2-3 cm at the top.

6) Cut strips out of the folded bag but stop the cut before you get to the single unfolded section.

7) Keep cutting 2 cm strips all the way across.

Make sure you don't cut the top section.

8) Give it a shake to unravel the folds. 

(action shot... sorry about the fuzz!)

9) Slide your hand along the inside top of the bag

Like this.

10) Now watch closely. You cut DIAGONALLY from one strip to the next.

As you cut it, let it fall and cut the next one diagonally.

Keep going until the end. 

It should all be falling on the table as one continuous strip. If you have ended up with a whole heap of loops then you have done something wrong baby and have to go back to step 10 and get the hang of the diagonal thing.

The last one is cut off like this and that is the end of your "yarn".

11) Now roll it in a ball of sorts around your hand.

Thanks Jenni. Great demo.

Now for the making of the bag.

I don't have the exact pattern because Jen just started with a long row of chain and then started to crochet around it to form a long oval shape.

She then kept going but didn't increase stitches in a few rows so that the oval started to form sides. She then kept going around and around up straight until the bag was the required height. Because she used a double crochet with a chain between each stitch to make the bag 'holey', she could just finish it off by threading a plaited cord through the holes along the top. If you do 2 loops of rope through the top, you pull both loops and the draw strings close the bag nicely.

Now go off to the beach to try out the bag!

PS. If you know Jenny, her craft is always precise, neat and very pretty. She started to use recycled grey and white bags but then the pink roll of bags caught her eye in the grocery shop. AND it had a cherry scent. How could she resist? Well, she still stopped those pink bags from becoming land-fill, so it is still recycling!

This post was linked to House of Grace and A bowl full of lemonsand Tip Junkie...