Plastic Fantastic

I ran out of thread for my current makings so was trawling the Internet for ideas and came across Etsy Labs archive's guide on fusing plastic carrier bags to make a stronger plastic fabric. What joy! This has kept me very amused this afternoon, if a little frustrated at the trial and error nature of new tricks...

So I started by rummaging for old carriers, few and far between in this house these days so that was a game of discovery in itself. It's amazing what you find in the back of cupboards...

Cut off the bits i didn't want and layered them up like so between pieces of what should be parchment paper, but seeing as I have no clue what that is, I reckoned the greaseproof paper I had in the baking drawer would do just fine.

The iron temperature is where the trial and error, and error, and yes more error came in, but eventually settled at a wool setting on 7 layers of carrier bag. Apologies the pictures are rubbish, but you can see the 'far too hot' with holes and molten plastic, the almost there, but I overdid the amount of ironing necessary in the centre, and the bottom picture does seem about right, if a little on the wrinkly side.

So I definitely improved as I went along... going to have to raid friend's cupboards now for their carriers so I can do more trials, and yes undoubtedly more errors so that eventually I can make, get this... shopping bags from, er, shopping bags!! But these will be strong I hope and durable and definitely upcycled!! 

It's brightened up an otherwise 'um, er, it'll have to be housework then' kind of day :)