Introduction: Mesh Tote Bags From Single-Use Plastic Bags

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Do you have "single-use" plastic bags piling up at home? What can you do with them besides take them in for recycling? You can turn the bags into "plarn" (plastic yarn) and crochet them into things. One particularly useful thing to make from them is reusable tote bags.

In addition to using bags you get at stores, you can cut up other plastic bags such as the colorful ones the Sunday paper comes in to use for accent coloring on the tote bags.

Supplies

20-25 plastic shopping bags per finished tote bag.

Size J crochet hook

(opt.) colorful alternative plastic bags for highlights.

Step 1: Create the Plarn From Plastic Bags

Cut bags across into 1" strips and loop together to form continuous yarn. Do not bother to measure the 1" strips. Whatever your eye thinks is about 1" is fine, and it doesn't hurt anything if the widths vary a bit. The attached photos are of instructions I previously created, along with some hints.

Step 2: Create the First Round

The tote bag is worked in rounds rather than back and forth rows as in some crochet work. The first round of the tote bag is single crochet (sc) stitches.

  1. Chain stitch to desired width of the tote bag and single crochet (sc) across. You want to end up with a count of sc that are a multiple of 4 plus 1, e.g., 45 in the pictures shown in this instructable. Alternatively, a slightly more advanced crocheter could lay down a row of "foundation single chain" (fsc) of the desirned final stitch count. I learned this technique from the the Spruce Crafts website (https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/what-is-foundation-single-crochet-4767004).
  2. Continue the round by sc across the back side of the chain stitches.
  3. At the end of the back side, slip stitch (sl) to the first sc of the front side.

The first picture shows the round right after starting step 2, single crocheting down the back side. The second picture shows the first round completed (front and back sides).

Step 3: Work a Mesh Round

Now we start making the mesh rounds. The mesh is basically alternating a treble crochet (trc) stitch and chain (ch) 3 stitches, with special cases to start and end the rows so that there are doubled-up trc's on both edges of the tote bag.

  1. Start by chaining (ch) 6. This serves as the first trc and ch 3.
  2. Skip 3 sc in the base round and trc into the next sc
  3. Continue to skip 3 sc, ch 3 and trc into the next sc across the front side.
  4. Repeat to the end of the front side where you break the ch 3 pattern and do a second tr into the next sc (start of the back side).
  5. Skip 3 sc in the base round, ch 3 and trc into the next sc across the back side.
  6. The last trc should be in the sc next to where the starting ch 6 was done. Do a sl into the third chain of the ch 6 created in step 1

The first image shows after completing step 2 (ch 6 and first trc).

The second image shows after completing step 3 (second trc on the edge of the tote bag). Note, the two trc's together.

The third and fourth images shows step 5 underway (trc's down the back side).

Step 4: Continue Adding Mesh Rounds

Repeat Step 3 until the tote bag is as high as you desire. Each round starts with a ch 6 and ends with a slip stitch to the middle of that starting chain.

Step 5: Reinforce the Top Edge

When the mesh rounds are done, ch 1 and work sc stitches into each trc and the chain space of the mesh. I choose to do three sc AROUND the whole chain stitches in the chain space rather than going into the middle of each chain stitch. I think this makes the edge stronger. Slip stitch back into the first sc when you have come back around to the start. Finish off and work the loose ends into the stitches.

Step 6: Attach Handles

Decide how far in from the edges you want to make the handles. (3-5 mesh spaces between the attachment points are probably what you want to shoot for. The handles themselves are rows of three sc stiches, worked back and forth. I think it is best to position the handles so the center sc of the three is right over a vertical part of the mesh round (trc).

Attach the plarn to where the handle is to attach on the front side the same way you would change yarn colors in other work. Start with a ch stitch and then do 3 sc, one in each sc of the reinforced edge. Ch 1, turn and do the next row of 3 sc. Repeat until the handle is of sufficient length (I've found 40 - 50 rows to be about right). The first image shows a start to the handle.

When the handle is long enough, I attach it to the edge at the other side using sc stitches through both layers of the reinforced edge and the last row of the handle. You could also attach by tying off and using a tapestry needle to weave the end to the reinforced edge, but I think the sc approach is stronger as there is twice as much plarn going between the two sets of stitches with that approach. The second image shows the attachment midway through (starting the second sc through both sets of stitches).

Repeat the above to create a handle on the back side.

Step 7: (Opt) Add Some Color

Technically the tote bag is done at this point as shown in the first image. However, I like to add some color, such as by doing a round of slip stitches into the reinforced edge such as shown in the second image. Some stores have brightly colored shopping bags for this. I also use the protective bags my Sunday newspaper comes in for this.

Step 8: Some Variations

There are some variations I have done.

The first image shows one of these, which is making a "stronger round" for mesh round one. This is done by starting with a ch 4, and then skipping one sc and doing trc in the next across to the edge (where you do side-by-side trc's as before). The second image shows the whole bag with the stronger round and more of a cast-over stitch at the to show off more color highlight.

Another variation I have done is to add rounds of highlight color to the top of the bag. These rounds are simply added before attaching the handles.

Another variation I have done is to create a tighter mesh by doing double crochet (dc) and ch 2 spaces across the rounds. (The starting stitch count for this should be a multiple of 3 plus 1.) The third image shows this variation with the extra highlight rounds variation as well.

Another variation I have done is to fill in some mesh squares on the side with 3 trc's rather than 3 ch to form a pattern such as a capital letter. This is shown in the bag on the right in the overall instructable image (letter V).