bag this

Hope you all had a happy 4th of July! We spent most of the week packing for our move. Phooey...purging and packing. It's amazing how much one can accumulate. Especially when you are like us and enjoy saving stuff just in case we can make it into something someday! Two posts ago I was showing you my recycled plastic bag fusing experiments. Today I took a break from working with cardboard boxes to play with the plastic bags again.

And what better place to have a plastic tote photo shoot than atop a plastic kiddie slide? :) Really, it wasn't planned. When I finished the bag I went outside to shoot it and there was the slide, waiting with perfectly coordinating colors.

So, I used the plastic bag fusing technique I mentioned earlier. I sandwiched the bag layers between parchment paper which was nice and big as I wanted to create pieces as large as possible. It takes a little practice with the iron to get the right time and temp. This stuff shrinks a lot when you are fusing it, so start large. I'm not into logos showing, however, I am a fan of Target and the bulls eyes give my octopus a bubbly background to hang out on. I also added a little machine stitching on the waves for some extra dimension. (click on top photo to see detail better) I had a little trouble with thread tension and skipped stitches when sewing on the plastic. Again, practice helps.

I accidentally messed up the piece I planned on using for the back, so I ended up using the floral from my earlier post. Kind of a mixed theme, but the colors coordinate. For the tote I sewed 2 rectangles together down the sides and bottom. I created the box corners by sewing perpendicularly across the bottom/side seam. For the handles, I copied the basic shape and fold of the handles from a paper grocery bag. I cut 2" strips and folded them twice lengthwise then zigzagged down the center. They are attached to the inside of the bag with an X stitched inside a square.

Cute! I was hoping that I would make a bunch of these to take to the grocery as reusable bags. Hmmm...a little too time consuming and not big enough without doing some extra piecing. I think I'd rather make some out of fabric. I also have a brainstorm for an easy way to have a stash of plastic bags on hand to reuse on a whim. I'll share that later.