Vintage Suitcase Friday!

Last week I posted about fusing plastic to make a stronger plastic you can sew.  This week I am interested in learning to crochet  Another way to reuse plastic bags is to cut them up into strips and make "plarn" (plastic yarn).  You can then make all sorts things by crocheting the plarn, including reusable shopping bags.  You can find more ideas by googling "crochet plarn".  Here's a little intro:

Vintage Suitcase Friday!

What can you do with plastic bags?  One idea is to fuse them into a stronger plastic.  Cut off the handles and the seam at the bottom of a bag, flatten it out, fold it up to 8-ply, sandwich it between pieces of paper (they use wax paper in this video, I used parchment paper) and iron it with a medium-heat iron for about 20-30 seconds, moving the iron continuously.  The new thicker plastic can then be sewn up as you like to make something new.  In this video, they show you how to make a laptop case.  To skip the goofy parts and get to the project, start at minute 1:00.

I tried this for the first time today and haven't made anything with my fused pieces yet but will post when I do. I would love to see comments if you have tried this or links to your finished projects!

Time to link up!

"Back-to-School" Ideas

Here are some back-to-school ideas from Savers/Value Village (not the same as St. Louis Value Village).  They are called "back-to-school" but they are really just idea for anyone who has a desk space (or a bed looking for a canopy).

Recovered desk chair, etched glass pencil cups

and record picture frames

Stickerman

How can you reuse plastic produce stickers?  Here's an idea from Stickerman:

The Door is a Jar

Vintage Suitcase Friday!

Check out this photo I found with mother nature network's article about one of my favorite facebook communities, ReUse Connection.  I love it!  (I bet a cat would too!)

Photo: gellenburg/Flickr

iPhone Holder

I love this idea I found on GreenDiary for reusing silverware.  I want one!

by ForkedUpArt

Vintage Suitcase Friday!

This is the place to link to any projects in which you have repurposed or upcycled something.  Thanks for linking up!

Green Fashion

I follow Eco-Artware on facebook.  They have a couple of fascinating posts this week.  One is an article from treehugger about an art camp in The Hamptons.  The kids there participated in a recycled fashion challenge and created pieces like the one below.

The other post was especially interesting to me because I had just been considering how to reuse medicine bottles a few days earlier.  For me this is a wonderful example of how exciting it is to see something old and familiar used in a new way.  Go here to see recycled pill bottles by LilacPOP.

Vintage Suitcase Friday!

Ready to link up?