How To Make A Fashion Doll Beach Mat and Tote Bag Out of Plarn

Do you enjoy crocheting? Are you a frugal crafter? If so, I have a great frugal craft project for you today that won't cost you a cent! This particular craft project is made out of plarn! Not sure what plarn is? Well, I am going to tell you about it.

Plarn is the slang term given to 'yarn' that has been made from plastic grocery bags...you know, those plastic bags that grocery and retail stores use to pack your purchases in. Instead of throwing them away and junking up our landfills, you can turn those plastic bags into plarn.

To make the following two projects, you will need a size H crochet hook (for the beach mat) and a size G crochet hook for the tote bag and 8-10 plastic shopping bags.

How To Make The Plarn: You will want to use clean plastic bags. Cut off the handles and flatten the bag flat. Cut off the seaming at the bottom. Now...cutting through both layers of the bag, cut strips that are a 1/2" wide. Once you have your strips, you will want to loop them together to form a continuous long strand. Once it is long enough, roll into a ball. You can find YouTube.com video's and tutorial web sites online to teach you how to make plarn if you need a visual demonstration.

To Make The Beach Mat:

You will want to chain 44 stitches, single crochet in the 2nd chain from the hook and in each chain across. Chain 1, turn and single crochet in each stitch across. You will continue this pattern until you have 11 rows. Fasten off and weave in your ends.

To Make The Tote Bag:

This tote bag is made by crocheting 5 rectangular blocks and then simply slant stitching all of the rectangles together to make the tote bag. I made the tote bag larger than a purse because I wanted it to hold the fashion doll's plastic suntan lotion bottle, her towel, hat, sunglasses, etc. You know...all of those little fun accessories that those dolls come with.

You will need to make 2 long side panels:
Chain 8, single crochet in the 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. Chain 1 and turn, single crochet in each stitch across, chain 1 and turn. Repeat until you have 4 rows, fasten off, weave in ends.

You will need to make 2 short side panels:
Chain 5, single crochet in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. Chain 1, turn, single crochet in each stitch across, chain 1 and turn. Repeat until you have 4 rows, fasten off, weave in ends.

You will need to make 1 bottom panel:
Chain 8, single crochet in 2nd chain from hook, single crochet in each chain across, Chain 1, turn, single crochet in each stitch across, chain 1, turn. Repeat until you have 2 rows.

Assembly:
You will simply slip stitch all 4 side panels to the bottom panel of the tote bag and then slip stitch up each of the 4 sides to connect them to one another. Fasten off, weave in your ends. For the handle, I just chained 10 and slip stitched each side of the handle to the top of the tote bag.

Shelly Hill is a mother and grandmother who loves to craft, crochet and scrapbook. You can visit Shelly's popular craft blog called Passionate About Crafting at http://passionateaboutcrafting.blogspot.com for free project ideas and tips. You can find a photo of the completed craft project on her blog at http://passionateaboutcrafting.blogspot.com/2010/08/free-plarn-crochet-barbie-doll-beach.html



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