Yesterday, on a whim I decided to see if I could use them to make a durable, hand held tote bag. With nothing more to go on than my own imagination I took about 12 bags and visualized what I wanted to do.
I folded/rolled the bags up and cut off the bottom glued strip and the handles. I then cut each bag into 1 inch strips.
I looped the strips together through each other to form a long chain of bags to make a 'rope' or 'string'.
I then dug my old *unused* crochet hook out. This was a 6N size but I would have had to look harder and longer through boxes in storage to find the larger size so I just used this one.
Back when I was about 7 years old my mother or grandmother taught me to do a running chain stitch. I hadn't thought about that until I re-taught myself when I was about 32 just by picking up a crochet hook and figuring out what worked. That's what you can do too. It's not hard... really.
At first I started to do a circular pattern on the bottom but I realized that not being a seasoned crocheter I was going to end up with a 'wine bottle' shaped bag instead of a tote. I ripped it out and decided to make the tote bag body first. I made a large loop, the width of the bag, and continued to crochet the plastic around and around.
Had I continued I would have made it about 15 inches long, resulting in the body of the tote being 15 inches in length and it was about 17 inches across.
However, I got bored.
I was going to crochet a flat bottom and then stitch it to the body and add some crocheted handles, but my boredom was such that I kept thinking; You know, if I wanted to use these plastic bags as a tote I could, you know, just grab one and put something in it and carry it! And in the end I was bored and stopped. LOL.
But it was good to know I could make one if I wanted to. :)
