Learn how to crochet plastic bags into totes

It's rare we buy anything without being handed our purchases in the ubiquitous plastic bag. First introduced in the 1970s, we have become the victims of their success.

Sure, some make it into recycling bins. But many more are stuffed into drawers, tucked into side pockets of our cars, jammed into even larger plastic bags in the garage. On windy days, they fly from fences and tree limbs.

But crafters are coming to the rescue. They have found a new use for the indispensable, yet obnoxious bags.

They are cutting them into strips and using them as a replacement for yarn.

Some braid the strips into rugs, others wire poofs of them into wreaths. But a few enterprising crafters with nimble fingers, such as Susan Brown-Evans of Richland, are crocheting them into sturdy totes.

She is teaching others the craft too.

On Wednesday, she taught a class of five how to make tote bags and showed examples of her other projects -- floppy garden hats, envelope purses, an exercise/beach mat and an eyeglass case.

One of the students was Gloria McConnell of Kennewick, who wanted to do something with the bags "besides throw them away." She belongs to a crafters group and plans to share her new talent with members.

"I taught one class how to crochet placemats and one of them took that idea and ran with it. She made a mat for in front of her kitchen sink," Brown-Evans said. "It's thick and cushy and when it gets dirty she just tosses it into the washing machine on a gentle cycle."

Needless to say none of these plastic crocheted items goes into the dryer. Instead just hang them to dry.

Brown-Evans began substituting plastic strips for yarn in her crochet projects about three years ago when yarn became too expensive for her budget.

"A friend in Oregon told me she'd heard about it, handed me a big bunch of bags and said, 'Here, try it,'" Brown-Evans said. "So I went online, found some sites with instructions and taught myself."

Home and Garden TV has a good site, www.hgtv.com/crafting/crocheted-plastic/index.html. To find others, do an internet search for "plastic bags & crochet."

Crocheting with plastic strips isn't new. Another student in Wednesday's class, Darlene McDannold of Pasco, received a crocheted plastic tote bag years ago from a friend.

"I used it to carry up to four cans of pop to work for years and years," she said. "Then I lost it somewhere."

She's planning to replace it with one of her own making.

Any plastic bag is fair game for Brown-Evans' busy crochet hooks -- grocery bags, produce bags, department store bags. Even grocery store bags that say they will degrade in the presence of heat and sunlight -- like those Yoke's Fresh Market uses -- work just fine. Brown-Evans has one she made about two years ago she still is using.

But some plastics are easier to use than others.

"Thicker bags," she said, holding up a bright orange one, "and really thin ones like dry cleaning bags, take more practice."

Thin ones tend to tear and shred while thicker plastic strips are hard to manipulate through the loops that make up crochet.

To decorate her plastic creations Brown-Evans visits thrift stores for ribbons, buttons and plastic flowers. Sometimes she makes her own flowers by crocheting daisies made of plastic strips around the pull-tab off soda, soup and other cans.

All the stitches she uses are standard single, double and slip crochet stitches. You can make up your own pattern as you go or follow any crochet pattern you like.

This story was originally published April 21, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Learn how to crochet plastic bags into totes ."