Plastic Bags into Shopping Bag - Mammy Made

Adele is here from Mammy Made, today...

Hi everyone. I'm Adele and I live in England with my two gorgeous babies, Leyla who is 4 and Naomie who is 2. I am so excited to be contributing to Inspiration Cafe again today!

I usually blog over at Mammy Made. I like to write about crafting, cooking and homeschooling, although I am only homeschooling part time at the minute. I have tons of tutorials on there so come by and say hi, I’d love to see you! I am also currently blogging about growing vegetables in my small back yard so come and check that out :)

This month I am going to show you how I made this reusable shopping bag out of plastic carrier bags.

It didn't take anywhere near as long as I thought it would and used up a lot of bags that would've otherwise probably ended up as waste! And it's pretty cute aswell. Bonus.

You will need: 

8mm (or bigger if you have it) metal crochet hook, tons and tons of plastic bags, cut into 1/2" strips and looped together to make ''plarn''. There is a good tutorial for how to do that here.

Bag:
1. ch3, join with slst in 1st ch to make a circle (it will be very tight but that's good)
2. ch3, work 9dcs in circle, join with sl st to top of ch3 (10)
3. ch3, turn, dc in same st, work 2dcs in each st around, join with slst in top of ch3 (20)
4. ch3, turn, dc in same st, *work 1dc in next st, work 2dcs in next st* rep around, join with slst in top of ch3 (30)
5. ch3, turn, dc in same st, *work 2dcs in next st, work 2dcs in next st* rep around, join with slst in top of ch3 (40)
6. ch3, turn, dc in same st, *work 3dcs in next st, work 2dcs in next st* rep around, join with slst in top of ch3 (50)
7-14. ch3, turn, sk st at base of ch3, dc around, join with sl st in top of ch3 (I worked the last 2 rounds in a different coloured plarn but this is optional)

15. bind off and weave in ends

Handle:

16. rejoin plarn a few stitches right of the seam (with back of stitches facing), ch3, sk st at base of ch3 then dc in next 3sts (4)

17-29. ch1, turn, sk st at base of ch3, dc across (4)

30. attach handle to opposite side of bag, making sure it's not twisted, bind off and weave in ends

Flower:
31. ch3, join with slst in 1st ch to make a circle (it will be very tight but that's good)
32. ch1, *sc in loop, ch4* rep x 6, join with sl st in 1st sc (6 loops)
33. ch1, turn, work (sc, hdc, dc, dc, hdc, sc) in each loop around, join with sl st in 1st sc, bind off and weave in ends

I tied my flower onto the join of my handle since it looked quite obvious. I joined mine with single crochet stitch, so this step can be skipped if you just stitch it on as normal. I was getting tired though, so I went for the easy (and cute!) way out :P

Done!

I guess mine turned out a little strange looking since I wanted the handle to be short enough to hang it off my pushchair hook, without having the bottom scrape off the floor like most of my other bags do! If you wanted to use it as a proper shoulder bag, you'd just make the strap longer, or attach two straps - one on each side of the bag :)

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you so much to everyone behind Inspiration Cafe for letting me contribute again. It's been fun!

Old Clothes by Deja Vue Designs

We're welcoming Tammy of Deja Vue Designs to Inspiration Cafe today.  

You're gonna love her!  She's got great style.

Meet Tammy!

Hi! I'm so excited to be a guest on the Inspiration Cafe! I need to pinch myself! lol I mean....gah Sharon Hines writes for them! I bow down humbly! First let me just say, I am an art junkie. If it has to do with art, I'm in! The really sad thing is, I believe everything in life came from an artist. This makes it hard to decide what to focus on. My main goal is to teach and inspire everyone I encounter love and appreciation for art of all forms. I LOVE to take used up junk, that no one else wants and give it a new life, and usually a new purpose. I find something very satisfying about saving anything from going into the trash. That might explain today's post. ANYHOO.....let's get the show on the road! :)

 

Old Clothes

Last week I told y’all what I did with my Goodwill pillow and used sweater.  Old clothes are useful in a lot of ways.  For the pillow I used the body of the sweater, and I told y’all that later I’d use the rest of it.  Well, today, I’m using the sleeves.  This was just pretty much a given for me.  There wasn’t a doubt in my mind what these little darlings would be used for.

Here are the sleeves from last week’s sweater.  The only thing I did before I cut them off of the sweater, is zig zag right up against the seam.  That way there would be no fraying.  Then I went out and bought some clear elastic.

I got some white too, because they only had one pack of clear, and I didn’t want to waste the clear on the bottom of the project.  It won’t ever get seen.  I could probably get by with very little elastic in the top of the sleeves, my calves are full-figured.  But my daughter, well, she’s not full-figured anywhere, and they wouldn’t stay up on her.  This made me think, that even with my calves, over time the knitted fabric would stretch.  This is the main reason the top got elastic at all.

I took the sleeves and sewed the clear elastic in the end that was where your arm stuck out. and the white went where the shoulder went.  This is what I got:

How cute is that?

A faux stalking!  I just LOVE the little finish it gives these boots.  Aren’t boots so yummy!  It’s the one thing about winter I DO like!

I just think these things just give the most elegant look to this boot.  My daughter wouldn’t play dress up for me.  All I could get is one leg out of her!  

You get the idea.  Next, we’ll find a use for the neck of those old clothes.

Would you use these?  Do you have an old sweater that you could do this with?

Love Y’all!

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