Recycled Wrapping

I'm hardly the first person to do this, but I loved how it came out, so I'm sharing this with you.

Actually, these photos kinda suck, so it's hard to see how cute this wrapping paper is.

Recycled Wrapping Paper Instructions

Materials:
Used paper grocery bags. Ones that have holes in the bottom are best--reuse the ones in good condition.
Scissors
Rubber stamps / homemade stamps / potato stamps / sponges or other textured material. (I used rubber stamps to make this paper.)
Stamp pads in darkish colors

Instructions:
1. Cut the bags so they lie flat. You will discard the bottom of the bags. If the bags have handles, trim those off and discard. Then, cut from the top down one crease until you reach the base of the bag. Next, cut around the base of the bag, and discard (recycle) the base.

2. Lie paper flat, and stamp with stamps and ink pads. Use different colors. Do NOT worry about being neat.

3. Once you have a stack of paper, roll up in one big roll and put a rubber band around it. Put where you keep your wrapping paper.

4. Stop buying wrapping paper.

Free: Crochetastic Tote

First of all, new word: Crochetastic. Crocheting with plastic bags. And it's fantastic.

Here's a more specific pattern for a purse/bag, with more detailed numbers than the general bag recipe in the last post on this subject. That post also has instructions for making yarn out of plastic bags.



Free Pattern: Crochetastic Tote

Materials
Crochet hook, size P
Scissors
Brown/Tan grocery bags, XXX grams. This works out to be 3 basketball-ball sized balls of yarn--WAY more than you think.
Note on yarn thickness: Cut the plastic bags into loops that are between 2 and 2.5 inches wide. See my earlier post for instructions on making the yarn.
Optional: White grocery bags, if you want stripes. About a softball sized ball of yarn.

Skills Required
Chain crochet stitch
Single crochet stitch, worked flat
Single crochet stitch, worked in the round
Single crochet decreases.

PATTERN

Bottom of bag: Chain 20, turn. Work flat in sc for 8 rows. Down forget your turning stitch.

At end of 8th row, turn, and work down short side for 8 sts. Turn again, work down long side for 20 sts, then turn once more and work 8 sts along the second short side. You are now back at the beginning of the round.

**Base of my bag is 14" long by 5" deep.

Work Body: Work bag in the round for 17 inches, for a tall tote like mine. Add stripes if you want--I put in 2 rows of a white bag yarn to create the stripe near the top of my bag.

Decreases: 5 rows before the start of your handles, you need to add a few decreases. As you can see from my bag, the decreases don't look like decreases--the bag tends to fan out, though, and the decreases make it look straight on the sides.

Work a one stitch decrease at each end of the bag (on the "short" sides), 2 dec per round. Decreases work like this: sc, skip 1 st, sc. The next round, sc as normal. Then work one more dec round. 4 total sts decreased. Work 2 more rounds in regular sc, then start the handles.

Work handles: At start of next round, beginning on a long side, work 7 sc sts. Then, chain 6 sts. Skip 6 sts on fabric, reconnect and work to the end of the long side--7 sts--then across the short side--8 sts--then 7 sts down the second long side. Chain 6 sts, skip 6 sts on fabric, reconnect, and work sc to end of round.

Work regular sc for 3 more rounds. Break yarn. Weave in ends.

Done!

Check out Claire's Batiks

My friend and former student Claire has crafted some amazing batiks on the theme of climate change. They've been on display at the university here, and she has created a web site where they can be viewed together. I highly recommend checking them out.

Here's a few samples.