Plarn; a labor of love?

I am making new, durable objects out of something we think of as worthless trash while transforming it in such a way that most people I have come across don’t even know that these were once plastic bags.  But, reflecting back over my long history with plarn, I sometimes wonder, “is it worth it?”

To say that crocheting with plastic bags is labor intensive is an understatement quite frankly.  If you are unfamiliar with the process allow me to break it down for you.

First, I collect the plastic grocery sacks.  Simple right?

That is step one, and already I have hit my first obstacle because I do not have the opportunity to procure bags in the normal fashion.  I’m not saying that I don’t accumulate plastic bags because I am a canvas-bag-toting-saint.  I am saying that my husband works at a Trader Joe’s and does all of our grocery shopping.  He should use reusable bags exclusively but he doesn’t.  Instead he usually uses the paper bags that Trader Joe’s give out (and reuses them over and over until they wear out).  In fact, I didn’t know that TJs even had a plastic bag option until Jon prof read this post.  But I digress.

So where do I get all my plastic bags you wonder?  A couple of places.  First, I have a number of friends and family members who save up their bags and give them to me.  This is how I get the majority of my bags.  But since most of my closest friends and family members try to use reusable market bags whenever possible (which is a good thing!) it can take quite a long time to accumulate the quantity of bags that is necessary to create the products that I make.

The other way that I obtain bags is a little more tricky.  I go to super markets and take the bags that other people bring for recycling.  Yes, you heard me correctly; I steal plastic bags.  Now here I will rant a bit because this bothers me.  Why should I be made to feel like a criminal for taking something that nobody wants (plastic bags) and recycling it?  Once, I went to a local grocery store (the Giant Eagle on W 117th, Cleveland) and I wanted some used bags.  My husband was with me and for some reason he decided that he wanted to actually ask the manager if it would be all right if I take the bags.  To our surprise his answer was NO, it was not all right!  At this point I told him why I wanted the bags and his response was, “well how am I to know for sure what you will do with the bags?  For all I know you could take them and throw them in the lake!”  I kid you not, that is what he said.  Then I went to another local super market (Marc’s in Lakewood, OH).  The first time I went I asked the person at the customer service counter if I could take their recycled bags and was relieved when the man said “of course.”  I did this on a couple of occasions until one day I went in and the bin where the bag are returned was bolted shut!  I now only resort to “stealing” bags when I am particularly desperate for a certain color, or my supply is non-existent.

The next step is sorting the bags.  Above is a particularly good haul of plastic bags that my mom and brother collected over several months and gave to me all at one time.  Each bag is checked for cleanness and sorted by color.  Below I have made small bundles of like-colored bags, which breaks them into more manageable amounts when I go to make them into plarn.

After I have at least 30 or so bags of one color I’m ready to make a ball of plarn, which involves cutting each bag, one at a time, and looping the individual pieces together, as shown below.  For a more detailed explanation of this process you may want to read my tutorial on how to make plarn.

Wow, that was a lot of work!  But wait, I haven’t even “made” anything yet!

Next comes the fun part, crocheting the ubiquitous grocery bags into handbags, durable messenger bags, baskets, and cute little owls that sit in your home and make you happy.  This is the part that reminds me of the classic children’s story, Rumplestiltskin.  Instead of turning straw into gold I am transforming trash into…

some lovely purses…

owl wristlets…

a chevron messenger bag…

acorn baskets…

and cute owl decorations.

I enjoy coming up with different crocheted designs and finding old purses past their prime to take apart and use their zippers, buckles and handles.

But what about the question that I pose in the title of this post; is plarn a labor of love?

This is something that I have been thinking about more and more in the last few months following my participation in the Last Minute Market.  I had a wonderful time at the show.  It was the largest show that I have ever done to date and it was also the first time that I showcased ONLY my plarn items (as opposed to a hodge-podge of upcycled items).  The lowest price point at my table was $25.  To me this was all such a big risk.  What would people think?  Would I even sell enough to cover my table fee?  Three hours into the eight-hour show without a single sale I was beginning to have serious doubts.  But I didn’t give up.  The entire day I stood next to my table and engaged each and every person who walked by and gave my work the slightest side-ways glance.  I greeted them and asked them things like, “do you know what these are made of?” motioning toward my table.  To my surprise, most people couldn’t guess that everything on my table was made from plastic grocery bags.

That’s when I would bring them over to my table and show them the poster below as I briefly explained the process.  As I did so I could hear the excitement in my voice about how I developed my technique over the past seven and a half years, and how when I started I barely knew how to crochet at all!

Inevitably they would come to the same conclusion and ask the same question, which were, “this must take you a long time!” and “how many bags does it take to make one of these?”

Though I do my best to estimate how much time it takes me to make one of my purses and how many bags I use, the truth is that it is impossible to calculate.  Okay, maybe it’s not technically impossible, but it’s not the way I want to spend my time, making plarn and crocheting take long enough as it is!

However, what I suspect is at the root of their questions and comments is this, “is it really worth your time to do this?”  Excellent question, and one that I’m trying to figure out for myself.  It’s a question that a lot of craftspeople face, which is, ‘can I really charge what I would need to charge to pay for my time’ (because let’s face it, in my case that is all you are really paying for since the materials are mostly free).

The answer is…

No, I could never really charge enough for the individual items that I create to make my time worth it.  Yet I still keep making them.  I make them because it really is a labor of love; it’s something that I need to do.  I need to make these things with my hands.  I need to share them with other people.  I need to photograph them and write about them and talk to other people about them.  I need them to leave my home and live their own lives with other people.  I need them to be made out of trash, because it is the act of making something out of nothing that is attractive to me.  Plarn gives me an avenue to design and invent while appealing to my sensibilities toward the environment.  And now that I’m a mother, I want to pass on the ideals about reusing, recycling and resourcefulness to my daughter.

If you have liked this article I invite you to follow zween on Facebook.  You may also like to check out these previous blog posts that I have written about plarn specifically:

Crocheting with plastic bags; a six year journey
Toot Tuesday; Making Plarn
Wise Owl Plarn Wristlets
Cheveron Ombre Messenger Bag

Chevron Ombre Messenger Bag

Today I finished a messenger bag with a chevron ombre pattern that was made with the humblest of fiber materials; plastic grocery bags lovingly processed into plarn (plastic yarn).

Please enjoy the picture show of how this bag was created.

It all started with a ball of brown plarn…

…and a ball of pink plarn.

Since I had many shades of pink plastic bags I decided to incorporate an ombre design.  See how the pink transitions as I crocheted along, finishing the back panel after three days.

After the back panel was complete it was time to make the front. I could have done the same Chevron pattern here, but I decided to enlarge it instead. This section took one evening to complete.

Next I made a long strip of crocheted brown plarn to give the bag some thickness and then attached all the pieces together. I used pieces of yarn to hold everything in place as I worked so that all of the pieces were perfectly alined.

Finally, I attached an old belt for the strap, since it feels better for wearing than it would had I just made the strap of crocheted plarn.

And here is the messenger bag completed…

I hope you enjoyed the step-by-step pictures of how I made this bag.

To keep up with all things zween, please follow me on Facebook and Pinterest!

This post has been added to the linky party Make it Pretty Monday week 18 over on the dedicated house, Made by you Mondays over on Skip to my Lou, and Making Mondays Marvelous on C.R.A.F.T. so check them out for some linky fun!

Pin-spiration; DIY Nursing T-Shirt

If you’ve read anything about breastfeeding I’m sure you know about the many benefits to nursing; it promotes bonding between mother and baby, it gives the baby’s immune system a boost, it helps the mother’s uterus to contract after birth and can help with loosing that maternity weight more quickly, plus it’s way less expensive than formula feeding.

But there are also some obstacles associated with nursing; cracked and sore nipples, plugged ducts, Mastitis, more frequent feedings (as compared with formula-fed babies), and the logistics of breastfeeding discretely in public so that you can some day leave your house!  So far, six weeks into baby number one, I have dealt with all of the above obstacles.  And today I’m going to address that last one; dealing with discretely nursing in public.

For some, the answer is using a large bib-like fabric such as a Hooter Hider.  These are great and in fact I have one that was given to me by my sister-in-law.  You can even find tutorials (such as this one) for how to make your own.  But although they are fantastic and have their place, I don’t always want to have a huge piece of fabric draped over me, which can be awkward to maneuver with a hungry, fussy baby.  Plus, I also feel like it draws more attention to what I’m doing; feeding my baby.

This predicament lead me to start searching out DIY nursing tops on Pinterest.  I found several that I thought were cute, but chose this one from Project Open Hearts for my first attempt.  Allison wrote a very comprehensive tutorial on how to make a discreet nursing top using two identical shirts (or two nursing tops using 3 shirts).

For my top I used two shirts that I had on hand that had seen better days to say the least.  The short sleeve top, which is my main shirt, actually had several holes in the front, making it the perfect candidate for this project since that section of the shirt was removed.  Though both of my tops are brown, they are not exactly the same color, but it doesn’t really bother me.  I kind of like how the two tone turned out actually.

The other way that my top differs from Allison’s is that I didn’t hem the overlapping section of the main shirt that hangs over the replaced section of the shirt.  Also, the long-sleeved shirt, which I used to make the new front panel, was not as long as the short-sleeved shirt.  Though I cut the long sleeve shirt just under the armpits, the fabric does not reach that far up on the finished shirt.  I don’t find this to be a huge problem though, because I did leave a generous amount of length for the overlapping part of the shirt.

Below is my finished DIY nursing top using Allison’s tutorial and my own recycled shirts that were on their way to the rag pile.  I do intend to make more of these, possibly with new shirts, but using what I already had was quicker and I didn’t have to worry about messing it up and wasting money on new clothes if it didn’t work out.

And here is how it works…

And here is Virginia trying it out for the first time!

See, very discrete.

Thank you for stopping by.  This has been another installment of my Pin-spiration series, where I do a project that I find on Pinterest and share it with you all!  Keep pinning and keep crafting!

Question; are you on Facebook?  Me too!  find me here!

This post has been linked up to Made By You Monday #11 6 over on Skip to my Lou and Make it Pretty Monday #14 over on The Dedicated House!

Recycled Fabric Changing Station

The other day while at the Library, I came across Amy Butler’s book Little Stitches for Little Ones and got inspired to make this changing pad using only materials that I already had lying around.

Amy Butler creates some of the most beautiful fabric patterns that I’ve ever seen, but when I found this project I immediately got really inspired to do some upcycling.

I really like the look of vintage bed sheets and have amassed a good quantity over the last several years.  Most of the ones that I’ve purchased from thrift stores are full or queen sized flat sheets as well as some pillow cases, since fitted sheets don’t tend to hold up very well over the years.

Amy Butler’s Changing Pad Pattern calls for a piece of mid-weight printed cotton for the exterior and coordinating solid-color terry cloth for the portion where the baby will be placed down for changing.

For the mid-weight printed cotton I used a very retro butterfly bed sheet in browns, orange, and gray set on a cream background.  This was a sheet that I cut up years ago to make curtains with (note to self; curtains are probably not the best application for vintage bed sheets).

For the terry cloth I used an old brown towel.  I chose it because it was nice and soft but we don’t ever use it for showering, as we have about 6 really nice fast-drying towels that where recent gifts.  Also, I figured that the dark color would mask some of the inevitable stains.

The pattern also called for two pieces of batting for the inside, which I just happened to have from another project, but if I wouldn’t have had enough of that I would have used pieces of an old felt-like blanket that I’d already cut up to use as batting for another project.

My finished piece is just a little bit different from the original pattern.  For instance I ended up making the changing pad two inches longer to coincide with the width of the towel because I couldn’t see just wasting those two inches for no good reason.  The second thing I changed was the tie.  In the pattern you are supposed to make the tie with the printed fabric and this gets velicroed to itself around the mat when it’s rolled up.  Since I didn’t have any sew-on Velcro to use but did have a spool of brown grosgrain ribbon I decided to use two lengths of that and make it tie closure instead.

Now we’ve got a changing pad to use on the go that’s completely washable and almost 100% upcycled!

This is a great project for people who have a sewing machine but who aren’t that ambitious or who feel overwhelmed by the thought of following a sewing pattern.  I for one usually have a hard time following sewing directions, but even this wasn’t too much of a challenge. (bonus points for my first “quilting” project!)

What have you made for your little one out of recycled/ reclaimed materials that you have found indispensable as a parent?  I would love to hear about it!  I’m looking for some more things to make and would love some inspiration!  I think that one of the next things I’ll try making are some fitted crib sheets (there’s a pattern for those too in the book mentioned above).  Something tells me that you can’t have too many of those!  I’m thinking that my vintage bed sheets would be a great application for baby bed sheets.

*This post was just added to The Inspiration Board Link party over on Homework!

A fun art walk in Sandusky, Ohio

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my table yesterday during the Sandusky Art Walk!  This was the debut event for my plarn items and I really enjoyed witnessing peoples reactions to them once they learned that they were made from plastic grocery bags.  Now I can’t wait to see what I’ll be able to come up with before I return to Sandusky for the next art walk on September 1st!  See you there!

Comming up; Sandusky Art Walk

Beginning in May of this year, The Sandusky Art Walk will happen the first Thursday of each month through December and was created to bring “art and fun to downtown Sandusky [Ohio].”  The August Art Walk will take place tomorrow from 5-9 pm.

This will be my second time participating in this art walk (again set up outside of Kharma Salon & Boutique, 125 W. Water St., Sandusky, OH 44870) and I’m super excited about it!  It was during the July Art Walk when I had the revelation that I should focus my attention solely on making items from recycled/reclaimed/reused materials.

This will be my first craft event since that time and I’ve really put a lot of thought into using the discarded materials around me (buttons, cereal boxes, old fabric, and plastic grocery bags, just to name a few). Here’s a small preview of what you will see when you visit my table…

Handbags and baskets made from plastic grocery bags (aka plarn).

Recycled cereal box greeting cards with fun cereal puns.

Lots of new gift boxes with bows made from recycled junk mail.  And much much more!  Hope to see you there!

Stash Busting September

Do you have a big stash of art/craft supplies?  It’s time to get them out and start using them!

Stash Busting September was created The T-Shirt Diaries and Pinkapotamus to give us makers motivation to start really getting into our supplies and de-stashing them.  Oh man do I have big plans for this challenge!

For all of the guide lines about this challenge make sure to check out this post and link your blog to it so that you too can participate, but in the mean time I’ll give you an overview of what Stash Busting September is all about.

By participating in this challenge I pledge to not buy any art/craft supplies in the month of September for personal use, (please note that by participating in this challenge one is not obligated to sustain from buying supplies for business purposes) and will instead use only supplies that I already have on hand.  This includes items from thrift stores and yard sales.

The T-Shirt Diaries is all about upcycling, which is right up my ally.  As an added challenge, I’m going to also participate in the Stash Busting Contest, which involves making an upcycled craft from my stash.

So now that you know about Stash Busting September what are you waiting for?  Sign up!  You have until September 3rd to link up to Stash Busting September, but why wait?  I know you like a challenge so get going!

Stop in and Craft @ Crafty Goodness!

Every Thursday in June you can stop inside Crafty Goodness any time from 12-8 and make a quick and awesome project to take home for just $5 and there’s no need to register! You get to choose from a whole list of fun projects. When I stopped by today there was a young girl making a glass tile pendent, which I thought was pretty cool, so I decided to make one too! We had a wide variety of great papers to embellish the tiles with; scrap booking paper, vintage children’s books, and a gigantic, illustrated dictionary. I found the image for my pendent in the dictionary. LOVE IT!  IF you want to check out next weeks Stop in and Craft Thursday click here for directions to Crafty Goodness.

And, while I was there, Chris showed me this very nicely written article she wrote about Crafty Goodness that was recently printed in the Lakewood Observer.  She even mentions me in the article!

Next week, in addition to Stop in and Craft Thursday, Crafty Goodness is hosting its first ever Craftapalooza on Friday, June 17th from 7-9pm!  Come out and listen to Taylor Lynch perform an acoustic set, a blend of bluesy folk with a touch of ska!  You’ll also be able to make for $5 crafts, this time with a rock and roll theme all day long, starting at 12.  Or, just pick up a music themed item, 100% handmade by a local artist!

TOMORROW make sure you come out to the Etsy Craft Party over at Keyhole Gallery.  It will be a recycled paper theme and making things such as paper beads, origami pendents, gift bows and boxes, etc.  It’s FREE to attend, but please do bring some old magazines (or even junk mail) to donate if you have them.  Click here for more details.

Hope to see you at these events!

If you are in the Cleveland/Lakewood area make sure you like zween on facebook for future updates on events like these!