Recycled Grocery Bags

Amazing macrame type hanger, I love it ! : o )

A nice design, too. I used to make kites out of the more nicely-coloured bags.

Very clever :)

i love it GT....i have done a cople of things like this....i even crochet video tape hats....

I think its brill what a great idea..

wow what a great idea.........

Thank you Guys. :-) I saw someone making things like this and was sooooo impressed. I had to try my hand. I have rolls now in a few different colors so you can work in stripes or whatever. I've made new heavy duty grocery bags which make great gifts or even backpacks.

Sandra, the woman who inspired the idea to me put stripes of videotape in her rugs, as the video would cling to the floor a bit so the rug didn't shift about. I love how re-useable so many materials have become for me emplying this. I bet those hats are adorable.

This looks Fab GT :) I can Crochet & must have a go with some Carrier bags myself now iv seen your brill pot hanger :)

we did a whole space at a festival using reycled stuff. video tape hats, carrierbag coated rubbish trees, a twenty foot tall man made from old plastic drainage pipe called Norman, and a wall of noise made from oil drums kettles saucepans and frying pans....its great to reuse old stuff..;-)

Excellent. Well done Greenthumb :o)

Thank you Jacque and TT! :-)

I think I remember your giant Norman, Sandra. It was wonderful. The wall of noise sounds fun too. :-)

Have a go Jacque. Its was simple! I cut the bag into strips and linked the circular strips together making a strong string. The material once crocheted is very strong and pliant, just wonderful stuff.

Could be the start of a new business venture. PLANT HANGERS by GT Enterprises, Inc. :)

LOL. That would be an interesting endeavor. I like the sound of it. :-) Thanks Mike.

I wonder if I have the ambition, best leave the pattern for other GOYers to pick up and share.

That is taking re-cycling to a whole new dimension.......well done love it !!

Thank you Dotty. Easy and effective. And so many things you can make from it.

WOW!! What a brilliant idea! best way to get rid of them, instead sometimes it gets in the sea and birds get choked on them.

I love re-manufacturing them into new purposes. It really does feel good too, as well as being a very strong material. :-)

This is lovely !

Thank you Shapla. For just an old plastic bag this is a wonder, isn't it.

great! I can crochet a bit, and am trying to get into macrame, but having some probs. If crochet can do it, all the better!
*s* any chance of giving a basic pattern? and details of how to use plastic carriers - prepare them, etc?

Thanks you Franl155. Heres a basic run down. I cut the bags into strips across, so they are circles which I can attached together just pulling one through the other and looping it into itself so I get a running string. This is all single stitch, in a expanding circle from one stitch. I just add enough stitches to each row to keep it laying flat. once I have gone the width of the base of my container, i divide the amount of stitches to get an even interval to attach the side arms. Then I stitch out a number of stitch chain and attach at each interval. (I would attach at two stiches, this is one stitch and I''m a little careful with it.) This can be repeated to get more side patterns ot just tied up by the loops as I did here. I have some other crotchets hangers as well. I like how much quicker it is for me than macrame. ENjoy. Feel free to ask questions. :-)

that's very helpful, thank you! I always preferred corchet to knitting, it grows faster! (I'd always tug at the knitting to make it grow and then it'd shrink back).

One more question: what size hook did you use?

ps hope you don't mind, i've copied your instructions and the picture to go with them, so I'll have them on my PC to refer to.

No, I'm glad to share. It was a large needle I must say. I don't know the exact size but it was one of the largest I have. I have many (because I like crochet for the quick amount of work you can produce compared to knitting as you said.) Generally I plan needle size by how large a hole I'd like between knots, how large a row. The big needle is fewer stitches and its somewhat heavy material to work with so the larger hook is also handy. I made this in about 20 minutes, but I had the string already made. When I get the bags home, I cut and make the strips, looping them onto a ball of it I keep ready to use. Easier to store the bags that way too.

I'd love if they were to catch on......lol.

thank you, I'll add that to my Word pages.

I've ssen some YouTube vids, notably by ThreadBanger, though there are others [it's often amazing what yuou can find by typing "recycle plastic bag" or similar into search - but I don't remember seeing a plant hanger of any kind, let alone one as simple to make and as elegant as yours.

*s* maybe you could try YouTubing? does GoY have a YouTube channel?

PS a lot of the vids are slideshows, rather than movies, so even if one's not good at video editing, one could still make a slideshow of the project at various stages.

The plant holder is a great idea, but a quick reminder ..

Many of the modern plastic bags nowadays used in the UK are of the kind which quite speedily degrade into tiny plastic pieces ... so make sure you use the right kind of plastic bags.... so that the lovely plant-holders don't disintegrate and fall on your head..

thanks for the warning, Terratoonie! How would one recognise the right kind? lol one would know it was the wrong kind after it disintegrated!

Difficult to tell...
... except when the pot lands on your head...lol.

Nowadays, most supermarkets' plastic bags are the kind that deteriorate quite quickly ... such as Tesco and Wilkinsons ...

Thicker, shinier bags from department stores which are still using up "older" supplies of bags might be the best bet...

thanks Terratoonie. I mostly use supermarket bags for rubbish, I've not thought of checking quality, they're one-use-and-chuck.

But the tables I bought came in plastic bags inside boxes: it occurred to me yesterday that plastic bags a metre squre might provide enough strips for a few planters - and being transparent, might also provide optical illusions of plant pots apparently hanging unsupported in mid-air!

Lol.... invisible plant supports .. I like it :o)

well, only till the light catches it, but if it works for even a second ... I used to have an indoor water feature; transparent pipe supporting a tap that seemed to be drawing wter out of thin air. Even though one knew how it was done it still looked pretty good.

ta-da! finally bought a couple of moderately huge crochet hooks - 15 and 20mm - the pictures had nothing to give any sense of scale, so when they arrived today I was slightly taken aback at how big they actually are.

One more question, GreenThumb - roughly how wide did you cut your strips? lol been imagining trying to corchet 3-4" wide material!