Fused plastic bags made a huge splash last summer on a number of blogs. Their popularity is kind of a no brainer. They are a great way to reuse all the plastic bags everyone seems to collect far too many of, and they are pretty simple to make. I’ve seem some great tutorials for these on esty labs and on craftster. The process is pretty simple, you layer together 6-8 layers of bags and sandwich them between paper, then use an iron to fuse the layers together. The result is a durable fabric, similar to tyvek, that can be cut and sewn into whatever you like.

The above bag was an experiment by betz white. She created this design using some clear bags and flower and star shapes she cut from some colored bags. Given the nature of the process you can fuse whatever shapes or designs you choose right into the “fabric.”  I have been excited to try this process out, but due to both my overzealous use of reusable bags, I have no plastic bags! Hardly something to complain about, I know. Now I just might have to track down someone who does.

While we’re on the topic, I wanted to mention this tote bag I saw last week at target. It was in the “Dollar Spot” even though it is marked $5.99. It’s made out of a similar fused plastic material, in this case using all target bags, trimmed out with fabric webbing. I really like the design of it. I love seeing handmade trends take off and get mainstream market appeal, especially when it involved reusing/recycling stuff. However I have to wonder where target is getting all these bags? I hope they are at least post consumer…

In related news, Timbuk2 recently got some heat from Target for attempting to reuse some of their shopping bags in their new line of recycled bags called Lamitron. (The photo is of an early prototype for a Lamitron bag) Given the cease and desist that Target issued Timbuk2 over these bags I kind of have my doubts about Target’s interest in keeping their bags out of landfill. It’s an issue I really had no intension of getting into in this post, but I sort of ended up here any way… Make of it what you will. :) via Ideacity.