Fused Soft Plastic Tote Bags

If you collect soft plastics (from chip packets to bread bags) rather than sending them to landfill, here’s a fun craft to transform them into a handy tote bag.

This blog is an adaption to a contribution piece written by me for NZ Lifestyle Magazine (2019).

Fabric bags or multi-use, hard wearing reusable plastic bags are a popular alternative to single use plastic bags. With a few creative hours one rainy weekend, making a fused plastic tote bag is fun and keeps those soft plastics out of the landfill and overflowing from your bottom drawer.

This is the perfect craft for the environmentally minded, to reuse and upcycle.

Most soft plastics can be used for this project, from frozen vegetable bags to rice bags, chip packets to single use supermarket bags (if you haven’t framed one for prosperity). The plastics are fused together then used as a fabric, sewn together for the finished tote bag.

The secret of fusing plastic together is in the temperature of the iron and the layers of plastic.

Things to note:

• Every iron is different so you must test and perfect the fusion process before literally ‘steaming ahead’ with this project. Too hot and the plastics will shrink, bubble or create holes in your work. Too low and the plastics will not fuse together at all.
• The number of layers is also important. 6-7 layers of soft plastics are ideal to create the sturdy fabric.
• Soft plastics must be infused between layers of grease-proof paper (on top and underneath) or there will be an unsightly melted mess on your iron!

How to make a Soft Plastic Tote Bag

Materials required

• soft plastic bags
• scissors
• grease proof paper
• paper & marker pen
• iron
• sewing machine & pins

Method

Step 1: Lay each soft plastic bag on a flat surface and carefully cut off the handles and the bottom seam with a pair of scissors. Spread the plastic bags out as flat as possible. Cut one side seam to create a large plastic single sheet if desired, or keep the sides in tact to form an instant ‘double layer’ effect, as this project has done. Repeat with multiple bags.

Step 2: Spread a large piece of grease-proof paper on a flat surface or ironing board. Place 6-7 single layers of soft plastic neatly on top of each other.

If wanting to use brightly coloured plastics to show through (such as a bread bag) insert this beneath the top single layer of plain soft plastic. The muted colours will still emerge through but the ink won’t smudge.

Step 3: Once the soft plastic layers are stacked neatly, place another piece of grease-proof paper on the top.

First test the heat of the iron on experimental layers and adjust temperature when satisfied with the fusion process as the hot iron melts the multiple layers together into one sheet. Iron your plastics together, keeping a firm pressure and moving the iron at a steady pace evenly over the paper. Check to ensure pieces are fusing together as they should. Set aside and repeat as necessary to make several ‘sheets’.

Step 4: Decide on the size of the finished tote. This will depend on the amount of soft plastics available, the number and sizes of plastic ‘sheets’ you’ve fused together.

For simplicity this design requires 7 x panels of ‘fabric’ of equal size: 30cm x 15 cm.

Create a paper template and, using a marker pen, draw the panel shapes directly onto the sheets of fused plastic and cut out.

Step 5: Pin and hem each panel separately, approximately 1cm from the edge. This will help strengthen the panels should the edges not be perfectly fused together.

Pin 5 x panels (leaving 2 x panels remaining), one beneath the other, length-ways. Sew each panel together, ‘good sides’ facing inwards. To visualise how this will look: the middle panel will become the base of the tote, the other panels on either side will form the sides.

Step 6: Pin the remaining 2 x panels to the exposed short sides of the centre panel. The format will resemble a giant plus sign. These wings will become the short sides of the tote bag.

Pull up the sides to form a tote bag and pin in place. Sew along external edges (stitching will be external, you won’t turn it inside out after sewing).

Step 7: Make handles from off-cut strips of fused plastic to suit. Hem, pin and sew in place.

As seen in NZ Lifestyle Block Magazine, written by me!