Meat Bag

I finished making the plarn for my project yesterday afternoon. I pulled all of the bags out from under the sink and sorted them out by type/color and I hit the jackpot with some large red bags, woohoo, red plarn!

So as I’m cutting my plarn I’m thinking about how nice it is to not have all those bags under the sink, how I need to make a cute bag holder, and that I really need to make some reusable shopping bags for myself (I’ve made a dozen and given them all away). Then suddenly I remember how every time I buy meat they put it in a plastic bag so the meat juices don’t get on anything else and how I always throw my meat bags away, because who wants to have a bag of meat juice under their sink, ewww? Throwing those bags away annoys me and I decide that I need to make something that can be reused.

Light bulb moment! I’ll fuse some plastic bags together and make a reusable bag just for meat! Fused plastic is pretty sturdy and I can just wash the juices off and use it over and over, yay (I think that I might even try and put it in the washing machine if it got really dirty). I even had the perfect plastic bags, they were super thin and clear.

Using my iron I fused 3 bags together (I cut off the handles and the bottom and fused them double layered). If you haven’t fused plastic before here are some instructions. The clear bags look kind of like waxed paper when fused, because they are super thin there are a few holey areas, no problem, I’ll just patch them with the scraps. I also fused the left over handles from the red bags to make my meat appliqué. I cut the edges even and zigzagged them together and now I have fancy, reusable meat bags.

I fused the letters to the bag, on one I zigzagged the edges and on the other I left it plain, I want to see if it will hold up to regular wear or if the letters will fall off. I like the patchy look, kind of creepy and Frankenstein-ish, funny for a meat bag. I have some left over letters and I might make a couple more of these or maybe I’ll use them for something else, now back to my plarn.

Stenciled Gears

I have be working on a new fused plastic bag design and today I stenciled gears on to the lining using a freezer paper stencil.

Freezer paper is so awesome!!! It is easy to cut and just irons right on to the fabric, this gives the stencil nice crisp edges. I also iron freezer paper on the back so the paint doesn't seep through. I used regular acrylic paint mixed with textile medium to make a permanent design. I dabbed (straight up and down) the paint on with a make-up sponge. The paint needs to set for 24 hours and then it needs to be heat set with an iron.

While I waited for the paint to dry I cut coordinating appliques out of fused plastic dollar store bags.

Here's the finished design after peeling the paper off, I really like how it turned out.

Next I'll need to sew the pockets and zipper onto the lining and then I'll start constructing the bag. I also have a resin project curing that will also be used for this bag, but more about that later.

I'm on the Front Page at Etsy!!!

My Gear Head Messenger Bag is on the Etsy front page, I'm so excited, this is the first time I've been on the front page, YAY!

Fused Plastic Messenger Bag

I finally finished my first fused plastic messenger bag! I did decide to use a different style than the one featured in the video and so my seat belts will be saved for another project. I am really pleased with how this one came out, I see a lot more fusing in my future.

I really like how the gear appliques turned out and I think that the bias binding really adds that "extra" detail.Here it is modeled by my husband who is trying to look thoughtful.And another shot to show how the bag hangs. I was really surprised at how light this bags is and the texture is like elephant skin. I must get more colored bags, my mother did find some old blue *mart sacks and a purple bag from lord knows where in her bag holder and I have everyone I know saving yellow dollar store bags for me. I seem to only have white ones and the only reason I keep them is for scooping the litter box.

Seat Belt Collecting

Mondays are my days to get things done and today that involved a trip to my local auto recycling center(you know, a junk yard). After seeing this video I just had to have some seat belts for my next project.

I was given directions from the owner of the place(he drew a map in the dirt and said to look for the cars that were stacked) I set off with my box cutter down a slightly muddy path. I walked about a quarter of a mile following the landmarks: past the white one ton truck and around the first curve to the right and found the stacked cars, which I avoided totally because they looked like they could fall at any moment! I will have to take my camera if I go back! Basically I just looked into every car that what sitting around, I was hoping to find black and grey seat belts. I was startled by a bob-tailed siamese cat that was hiding in a van and then I got to thinking about what else might be lurking about. I was able to collect six buckles and webbing to match before I got the heebie-geebies and decided to leave.
What really happened was I started thinking about how some of the cars were really crunched up and that maybe someone had died in them and I'm rooting around in the seat crevices where there might still be blood and guts, eeeewwww. I did come directly home and threw the whole bunch into the washing machine with hot water and lots of soap. They did wash up nicely and they look new!
I have started fusing the plastic and cutting out the pieces, but I am waiting to get some yellow bags for the design I want to fuse onto the pocket and I also need some piping. I can't wait to see how this turns out, I'm thinking it would make a great man-bag.