I thought quite a while about what we'd do to honor our planet today, and two projects were basically dropped in my lap. Little Turtle's preschool teacher asked us to send in as much junk (i.e., usable trash) as we could last week, in preparation for a "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" lesson this week. They're using as much as they can to make puppets. What a great idea! This afternoon, the boys and I will be dubbing a new bin the "Recycled Art Bin," into which we can put items like this for craft projects. (Coincidentally, I saw the idea again a few moments ago in Family Fun Magazine.)
My own personal Earth Day project came to me via the message boards at Atlas Quest. Use old grocery bags to crochet reusable shopping bags. Whoa!!! Love it! I love crocheting, and I've been [slooooowly] collecting reusable bags. This is a great way to add to the collection. I spent much of yesterday gathering every spare plastic bag I could find to start the project, and a few minutes ago, I finished this:
This lovely piece of art is about 10" wide (at its narrowest point) and 13" tall. It's a lot smaller than I'd like, and it's way too thick and heavy to use as a shopping tote. (Storing enough of these in my car for grocery day would take up half the trunk!) However, I'm going to play around with some other patterns I've found online. This thing is sturdy! I can see it lasting forever.
If you don't crochet, that's okay! "Plarn" (plastic yarn) can be used for knitting, macrame, and braiding, too. Here are some resources for making this type of project for yourself.
How to make plarn
Pattern for the bag I made (Obviously, I did my stripes differently. Live on the edge, that's what I say!)
The next pattern I'll probably try/adapt
My Recycled Bags.com - Just found this site, and she has some fabulous plarn patterns!
1 comment:
Just wanted to stop by and say Happy Earth Day. I love your recycled bag! It will be so useful for taking to the store for groceries. I use mine all the time. Don't worry about the look. It's a craft and it's unique. Recycled bags are so cool and unique. Remember no one on Earth has this bag. Keep on working the patterns and I hope you find a pattern at my site to try.
Cindy
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