simple maths

bag for sale - click here for details

how did I make it???

40 plastic bags

plus...

2 audio cassette tapes

plus...

a macrame belt

plus...

some kitchen string

plus...

some fabric remnants

and...

a length of scrap wool

... and there's even a pocket inside

recycling an old belt

Thanks for all your responses to my last post. I do love to hear feedback from you... it's always of interest to me to hear what your experiences are... and also the ideas that you have

I especially love the idea of fusing the woven plastic (thanks frill.friend)

Also... I hadn't ever thought of adding beads into the plarn as I ply it... another fabulous idea! (thanks echo)

Well, the body of the plarn bag is finished...

but what to do for a strap???

Experience has taught me that as a general rule, crochet straps s-t-r-e-t-c-h.

I wish it wasn't the case, but they do.

Or maybe I just put far too much STUFF into my bags???

Anything is possible...

Now that I think about it though... I've only ever worked crochet straps widthways. I've chained say 6 sts, and then worked short rows of sc until I reached the length that I wanted.

I usually work a row of sc down each side of the strap for extra stability, but I'm wondering if I would get a better result if I worked the entire strap sideways... like I chained 80sts, and then worked 6 rows???

Well... that's something to try another day... because today I've decided to use a belt.



Sometimes I like to make a feature of the buckle... like I did with this bag

But there's nothing that I find terribly interesting about this one. So the plan is to remove the D-rings (which I'm sure will come in useful for another project at some point) and just use the fabric for the strap.

Now... off to find something for the lining...

recycling plastic bags

I've been thinking a lot about plastic bags lately... and how to use them in my craft.

There a challenge running for the month of May, over at my group on Ravelry... to create a project which recycles a plastic bag.

Any kind of project at all.

Using any technique you like.

Which got me to thinking... there's so many things that I haven't yet tried with plastic...

One is to FUSE it... to take about eight layers of plastic, sandwich them between sheets of greaseproof paper, and then iron them so that they fuse together. The resulting plastic sheet can be cut and sewn, just as you would with fabric.

I've tried fusing once before. It wasn't exactly successful, so I tossed the idea... but I'm starting to think that it would definitely be worth another try.

The second idea that I would love to try is WEAVING with plastic strips. I saw a fabulous bag (you can see it here) which I would love to make. It uses woven squares of plastic, which are then patchworked together and stitched into a bag... and it looks amazing.

Despite those ideas running around in my head, I started on an entirely different plastic project:

I'm working on a crochet bag... using two strands of plarn (plastic yarn) and on strand of audio cassette tape. It's my first attempt at combining plarn and cassette tape.

So far, so good... Stay tuned to see how it goes!