Saturday 9 March 2013

Sew-vivor, Up-cycle Plastic Bag Tote


Well with a little push from my friend Janelle at Emmaline Bags & Patterns. I have decided to jump into the Sew-vivor auditions.


So I came up with a new pattern for a tote to hold my Kobo (and also my dream of a perfect tote to put my iPad mini in.)  That is of course just a dream, sadly to say I don't have a iPad mini. It is so great to have a safe place to put it just in case, one shows up for Mother's Day or something. (Yes it is a suggest in case my DH is reading this.)


With the new pattern I had to come up with a new fabric to go with it.  Plastic fabric or fused plastic - I'm not sure how to describe it. Something that is water proof, sews up like fabric and can be any colour or design you want.


In my case many colours of polka dots, the funniest one having text that says "recycle where facilities exist". I laughed when I saw the symbol fit perfectly into my dot size. Well if I was going to reuse/up-cycle items for this tote, I should try to reuse pretty much everything I could think of. Plastic bags became the fabric, an old car seat belt became the strap for it (that way it is adjustable from on the shoulder to over body). I did use cotton duck, felt, thread, magnetic closures, and interfacing that were all new to ensure good structure for the bag. 


I use to make fused plastic material years ago and then sew up bags - heck I also use to make up plarn (yarn derived from plastic bags) and crochet up bags with that as well.  I was known to do that, so hence my piles of plastic bags that people use to give me.  I have since gotten stronger and said no more plastic bags.  So my stash is getting smaller, which is a good thing. I have even folded them nice and neat and placed them in boxes so they take up less room.


I have written up two tutorials, one How To Make Plastic Fabric, and one How To Sew With Plastic Fabric. So get out your bags and irons and go to town and see what you can come up with. The skies the limit or is it more your plastic stash is your limit.



9 comments:

Janelle @ Emmaline Bags said...

Oh my goodness? I had no idea this fused plastic fabric you speak of existed, I will indeed have to google that. Once again, your sewing is impeccable, plastic or no plastic! You just go get yourself that ipad mini right now young lady, you deserve it. Good luck on the entry, it was foolish of me to suggest it, I only made stiff competition!

Carry Hers By Natalie said...

Thank you for your invite!

It is so much fun to make, you lay about 6 layers of plastic down. Put down parchment paper on the top and bottom. Then iron on top of the paper until the plastic all fuses together. Just make sure you keep moving the iron around as it will melt. Use low med heat, just experiment with the setting. No steam.

I will try to write up something about it as I took pictures all the way through doing this bag.

Rebeckah Austin said...

Awesome technique :)

Carry Hers By Natalie said...

Thank you Rebeckah.

The nosy pepper said...

I love this!!!What a cool technique and awesome bag :)

Carry Hers By Natalie said...

Thanks Cyndi, I had lots of fun making the bag. I hadn't done much with fused plastic in a while, I thing I will make up a few other things with it.

Unknown said...

How did you do the polka dots? Did you cut them out and then fuse with the rest of the plastic? I just love this.

Carry Hers By Natalie said...

Hi Jill, Thank you. I did cut the dots out first. I placed about two layers of the colour of plastic,that I wanted to use for the dots and fused that plastic together. That way it was a good bright colour plastic for the dots. Once they were all cut then I placed them on the plastic that I was going to fuse together. The only thing I would change is I would put a layer of clear plastic over the top of the whole thing to help keep the dots looking great afterwards.

Crafty Brooklyn Army Wife said...

Wow this impressive!! Stopping by from ChrisW Bag Brag Tuesday linky party. Here is what I shared: http://craftybrooklynarmywife.blogspot.com/2013/07/test-pattern-for-sew-sweetness-lapin.html

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