This project has been on my mind for a while now because I think it is totally brilliant. It involves taking old plastic grocery store bags and creating a whole new material from them. One of the many things you can do with this material is create a reusable shopping bag.
You can either follow along with my directions or follow along with the tutorial that I used for the project here.
What you will need:
Flimsy store bags (like grocery stores or target)
Parchment paper
Iron (I set mine to rayon with no steam)
Cut up the bags so they will lay flat and remove the handles. If you use a bag with printing on it you should turn it inside out because the ink can get messy. Layer the bags 8 thick. You can place items under the top layers - like paper cut outs. I found that smaller items worked best if they were made of paper. You could also draw right on the bags using permanent marker to make a design or cut interesting shapes out of plastic bags, to layer in, as a design element. I placed one layer of parchment paper below the bags and one layer on top. I then ironed over the parchment - being careful to keep the iron moving. I then flipped the whole thing over and ironed the back as well. I found it crucial to remove the paper AFTER it had totally cooled down.
Once this is done, you can then trim the edges to square off the material. I folded mine in half and fused the sides with the iron.
For a more professional look you can always use a sewing machine!
This is an easy and very satisfying project. It really made me feel like I was winning on the recycling front. I think I'm going to make more than a few of these to hand out to anyone who will take one.
C.
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