How I Used Toothpaste Tubes to Decorate This Tote Bag
by
Maura White
3 Materials
7 Days
Medium
I'm fully addicted to crocheting - and not with just yarn, but also with plarn! I have used the plarn to make plarn totes - the ultimate in using upcycled materials for crafting! Not only am I putting my grocery store plastic bags to good use, I'm also finding a way to use old toothpaste tubes!
Materials Needed to make your own Plarn Tote Decorated with Toothpaste Tubes: 25 (approximatly) plastic grocery bags 3 empty toothpaste tubes Crochet needle (K hook) Needle and thread
I was also thinking about how in the world can you re-use a toothpaste tube into something useful. So I decided to make "plarn" using the toothpaste tube and use this to decorate my plarn tote bag! When you cut the tube into plastic strips, you can chain it together, creating plarn. I later braided that together to create the flower stems that you can see I sewed on the tote bag.
You can find the full crochet pattern over on my Plarn Tote Decorated with Toothpaste Tubes I decided to take on my countertops! blog post.
I cut apart 3 different toothpaste tubes and made 3 different strands of "plarn." I then took those three strands of toothpaste tube plarn and braided them together to get the strand that I sewed onto the bag. Use the toothpaste tube chain to design the stem and hand stitch that to the tote. When the silver stem is securely sewn onto the tote, top it off by hand stitching on the flower. When I was just starting this project, my husband made fun of me quite frequently when he watched me cut up the plastic and thought I was crazy. Now that he has seen the finished product, he did say that he had to admit that it was quite creative and really likes how it turned out. My mother too was rolling her eyes at me while I crocheted plastic bags. But when she saw the final bag, she requested one for Christmas. :) I have another fun way to make a tote bag using a tank top. It takes just 15 mintues! Read it OVER HERE!
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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5 of 6 comments
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So creative!!! I love this!
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I'm a plarn addict, too! lol I've posted a few projects here of my plarn creations as well. I feel the same way as you do. It's very rewarding creating projects out of plastic bags to keep them out of the landfills.
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I've also seen videos of ladies making sleeping mats for the homeless.
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