Day Thirty Eight

I decided I want to make myself a bag like the ones I did at Christmas out of the plastic bags. So for today I just have the very beginnings of the project, which will take awhile. I have to create all the "fabric" first before I can sew anything.

I want my bag to be all black and white, mostly so it can be pretty versatile with outfits.

After coloring the design with Sharpie (or a similar product) you turn it inside out so the ink doesn't get messed up and ruin your iron, and then you layer more plastic behind it so that it ends up as decently strong material.

Day Five

Today (since it's after midnight, technically yesterday) I finished my sister's belated Christmas present... I know. I'm terrible. I definitely bit off more than I could chew this year. It probably wasn't very smart of me to decide to sew seven full sized bags and three small bags as gifts a week before Christmas, and then set about learning how to use a sewing machine in order to do so. And I couldn't just go out and buy fabric, I had to use a material that I pretty much have to make myself. That's how I roll- making everything as hard as possible, and with as little time to do it as possible. I really am stunned by my own intelligence sometimes.

Rather than using plastic grocery bags as I did with the bag for my mom (day two), this time I just used plain trash bags: black bags for the strap and the black panels, and white bags that I designed with Sharpies before ironing to fuse the layers of plastic together (if you try this, make sure to turn the bag inside out if there is any ink, or it will be ruined).  This bag goes over the shoulder and has a cute little flap. I half used a free pattern I found online and half winged it, and I think it turned out quite satisfactory! Probably the most time consuming part of the whole thing was drawing/coloring in (inking? saying "coloring in" feels so... elementary school) the different designs, which I did before Christmas, I just needed to sew everything together.

If anyone wants to try my method for making trash bag fabric, I can post a more detailed step-by-step process with photos. On day two I posted the link to the video I learned this from, but after lots of trial and error I've figured out a few tricks they don't mention that help it go more smoothly. I can also post a link to the pattern I based this bag on (which came from a site with a huge list of links to free purse patterns).

And again, this was a gift so I can't sell it, but I could do a commission. If someone commissioned me to make a bag for them out of this material, I could do the designs in a color scheme of their choice! It's rather time consuming though, so it would be a bit pricey.

Day Two

Today's piece is one that I've worked on in bursts over the last week, and it's a belated Christmas gift for my mother (I made these things for my family and couldn't get them all done in time). Since this is a gift I obviously will not put it on etsy, but I can do commissions. I've made one using mostly Target bags that was very cool, and one with brown plastic bags that was a different look.

It is a reusable grocery bag. Glamorous I know!
The cool part is that it's made from used plastic grocery bags, melted together into thicker pieces and sewn together. To add some color and interest I scribbled some Sharpie on there before ironing them- my mom likes blue best.

I learned how to do this from this great video.
I can answer any specific questions in the comments!