Knit Plastic Bag Handbag

This project explains how to spin yarn from ordinary plastic grocery bags. This yarn can then be knit into a handbag.

You will need
1. All the plastic bags under your sink.
2. Scissors
3. A spindle (ancient simple spinning tool)
4. Knitting needles

Step 1: Cut Plastic Bags Into Strips

Follow a spiral pattern around the bag to get one long strip from the entire bag. Don't use your best sewing scissors for this. Cutting plastic bags dulls scissors quickly.

Step 2: Attach End of Plastic Strip to Spindle Tip and Spin

Spindles are the simplest way to spin fiber, or plastic bags. The pictured spindle is a round piece of wood with a dowel glued through it. The end of the dowel has two narrow saw cuts at the end to attach the end of the string to .

Once attached, grab the spindle by the point of attachment and spin between your fingers. The weight on the bottom keeps the spindle spinning. Hold the plastic strip in your other hand and pay out the strip as it twists into yarn.

Step 3: Continue Spinning

As the spun yarn gets longer, wrap the yarn around the stick portion of the spindle and re-attach at the tip. Keep goiing.

Step 4: Spin Together Two Strips of Plastic

When you get to the end of one strip of plastic, you don't need to tie one strip to the next. Just overlap the two ends, fold them together and continue spinning. The twisting together will be enough to join the two strips.

Step 5: Knit Your Plastic Yarn

Sadly, I don't have action pictures of this step. The bag shown has a very simple pattern. The body of the bag is a long strip of nothing but knit stitch. The handles are another long strip of the same stitch. The two pieces were sewn together using more plastic yarn.

This bag was a first attempt. Some suggestions for improvement.

1. The fabric is surprisingly heavy duty. Keep to purse size, or make something you don't plan on lugging around. This large tote bag is a little bulky.
2. Have fun with color.