How to Make Dresses Made of Plastic Bags
Even with a number of cities passing ordinances limiting the use of plastic bags, plastic bag overflow is extremely common. The non-profit organization, Californians Against Waste, estimates that Californians alone use nearly 12 billion plastic bags each year, many of which end up in landfills and in the oceans. One way to reduce your own plastic bag usage is to use reusable bags when you shop -- and use up plastic bags you already have by fusing the bags into a durable, water-resistant fabric. Fused fabric can be sewn, as any other fabric, into accessories or even clothing, such as a unique, green-minded dress.
Things You'll Need
- 100 -- 200 thin, plastic bags of similar weight
- Scissors
- Parchment paper
- Iron
- Ironing board
- Dress pattern
- Pins
- Sewing thread
- Sewing machine
Instructions
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1
Flatten each bag and cut off the bottom and handles using the scissors. Cut down one side of each bag so that it becomes a large, rough rectangle.
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2
Stack the bags, printed sides facing in, into piles that are seven layers thick.
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3
Turn on your iron, and set it to "rayon" or a high setting.
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4
Place a piece of parchment paper onto your ironing board. Place one stack of plastic on top of the paper, and then cover this with a second piece of parchment paper.
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5
Run the iron over the top layer of paper, moving the iron constantly, to fuse the plastic together. Flip the parchment-plastic-parchment sandwich over, and run the iron over the other side.
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6
Peel away the parchment paper to expose your sheet of fused plastic.
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7
Repeat fusing process with next stack, and iron one edge to the previously fused sheet to form a large rectangle of fused plastic fabric.
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8
Touch up any areas that are not completely fused or edges that are not securely attached.
Allow plastic fabric to cool.
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9
Cut out pieces of dress pattern. Lay plastic fabric onto the floor and lay pattern pieces onto the fused plastic fabric.
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10
Pin pattern pieces in place and cut out, following the dress pattern pieces.
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11
Remove the pattern pieces, then pin the plastic fabric pieces together following the dress pattern instructions and guidesheet, to prepare for sewing.
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12
Thread sewing machine and sew the dress pieces together.
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1
Tips & Warnings
You can use all the same type of plastic bag for a uniformly-colored fabric. However, as long as the plastic bags are of a similar weight, you can combine colors of bags to create a "stippled" or varied-colored fabric.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Polka Dot/Getty Images
