Crocheted Market Bag
from Recycled Plastic Grocery Bags
Jodi Smith
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This sturdy bag is the same size
as an ordinary plastic grocery sack. It can hold much more,
because you can pack it full. Even when this bag is filled with
cans or glass jars, it can easily manage the weight.
Wide handles are easy on your hands, even when the bag is packed
full. Sturdy handle construction distributes the weight of the
bag and reduces strain at the handle joints.
The bag is easy to wash, and dries quickly.
This bag is convenient for many household uses. The pattern can
easily be adjusted for any size.
Feel virtuous for giving your old plastic shopping bags a good longterm
use.
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1. Materials:
Plastic Grocery Bags
Ordinary plastic grocery bags are an excellent construction
material. A
few bags in a contrasting color will allow you to decorate the top and
bottom edges of your market bag.
Some other plastic bags also work well. I have had good luck with
frozen vegetable bags. If your material tends to break or tear,
rather than stretch, the plastic is probably too brittle and not
suitable for crocheting.
You will need 2 to 3 dozen plastic grocery sacks to make the market
bag.
(This may sound like a lot, but start with what you have now. In
my kitchen, bags collect faster than I can crochet.)
Cut each bag into one long spiral strip:
- Cut off and discard the base of the bag, leaving a tube.
- Make a series of slices most of the way across the tube,
and about
½-inch apart. Leave 1 – 2 inches uncut along the side of the
tube. Flimsier bags can be cut in thicker strips; heavier bags in
thinner strips.
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- Start the spiral by snipping from the end of the bag to one
end of the
first cut.
- Snip diagonally from the other end of the first cut to the
start of the
second cut.
- Continue in this way until the entire bag is one long
strip. If the
strip gets broken, don't worry; you will just have to make more joins
during crocheting.
Crochet hook size approximately size K
Gauge approx. 2 st/inch ( if you are fussy about the size of your bag)
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Always crochet with two strips of plastic together. If there is a
weak spot in the plastic in one strip, the second strip will strengthen
that stitch.
Add
new strips by overlapping the new and old strip for about 2". (There
will be three strips of plastic worked together at the join.) Tuck any
lose ends into the work.
2. Base
Chain
16
Rows 1-32: Turn, ch 1, sc 16
Size when stretched: Width: 8”,
Length: 16”
3.Sides
(Optional: use contrast color for Rows 1-2)
Rows
1-2: ch 1, * sc around edge of the base (starting with a side) *
(32 st each side,
16 st each end = 96 st), join last st to first st of row
Rows 3, 5, 7, 9, 11: ch 2, * dc, ch
1, skip 1 *, join last st to first
st of row (96 st)
Rows 4, 6, 8, 10, 12: ch 2, *ch 1,
skip 1, dc*, join last st to first
st of row (96 st)
Height approximately 9-10" (when
stretched), so far.
4. Handles
This is clever. The half-twist in the handle not only gives a
flat hand-surface for carrying, but allows you to easily crochet both
inside and outside of the handle in a single row.
(Optional:
use contrast color for Handles)
Row 1: ch 1, sc 11, [make handle: ch 40, turn work, skip
10, sc 8, dec 2, sc 38 in back of chain, dec 2], sc 38 (along edge of
basket), [make second handle], sc 27, join last st to first of row
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Row
2: ch 1; sc along entire edge of basket and handles (dec 2 at
each corner between a handle and basket); join last st to first st of
row
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Decrease: 2 decreases make
the mitred corner at the joint between a handle and the basket.
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Updated July 11, 2006
© Jodi Smith, December 2005
