Upcycle Plastic Grocery Bags Into a Colorful Tote

Materials:

plastic bags – we used white, blue, green and coral
sewing machine
polyester thread
leather straps
parchment paper
iron
scissors
heavy-duty permanent glue

Steps:

Prep Bags

Smooth out white plastic bags and cut off the handles and bottom seam. Cut away any wording on the bag’s front.

Create Fused Material

Lay parchment paper sections on a large, flat, hard surface. Tip: Ironing boards tend to leave grooves in the fused plastic so a hard surface is best. Open up two bags and place on the parchment paper with the bags slightly overlapping in the middle. Layer two more bags over these (Image 1) and completely cover with another sheet of parchment paper. With iron on low setting, start in the middle and move the iron in a back-and-forth motion over the parchment while the plastic fuses below (Image 2). When one section is done, adjust the parchment paper and move to the next section, fusing plastic below. Flip fused bags over, cover completely with parchment and repeat ironing process to ensure full adhesion. Repeat this layering and ironing process 4 times with white bags to make 4 thin layers of fused plastic ‘fabric.' To create a stronger tote, fuse 2 of these thin layers together using the same technique as above to make a thicker piece of ‘fabric’. Flip over to make sure all the plastic has fused together. You’ll end up with two large approximately 21x16 pieces of white fused plastic.

Add Color and Pattern

To dress up the white material, cut wavy strips of blue and green plastic bags a bit larger than the white. Lay them in a random pattern (Image 1) and fuse to the white using the same technique as above. Trim the material to 19”x15” (Image 2).

Create a Pocket

Fuse together 5 colorful bags (we used coral) to create a pocket. Cut the fused plastic down to 6-3/4” x 4-3/4” and sew to the inside to create a clean hem. Sew to the outside, middle of one piece of blue/green ‘fabric’ (Image 1).

Assemble Tote and Add Straps

Place both pieces of blue/green ‘fabric’ inside out and sew three edges together. Fold top of bag inside and sew to create clean hem. Glue strap bases to bag’s front and back using a low-VOC heavy-duty glue. Add clothespins to clamp handles in place and allow to dry. Finally, hand-stitch handles to bag with coordinating thread (Image 1). Note: The straps we used had punched holes to make this easy.