Simple fused plastic wallet

In my last post I explained how to turn old plastic shopping bags in to quasi-fabric - now on to things to do with it. The first and easiest way to use fused plastic is to make a simple wallet (or coupon holder, or receipt holder, etc.). Now, on to the crafting!

In order to make this project, your sheet of plastic needs to be three times longer than whatever size your want your finished project to be. If you want something sizeable but only have smaller bags, don't fret, part of the awesomeness of fusing plastic is that you can fuse sheets together!

Each of these sheets are a single Kroger bag. Each bag was folded to make it 8 layers thick (lay it flat and fold it in half, then in half again). Sadly, the wallet I wanted to make needs bigger squares than these.



In order to fuse two sheets together, it works best to have "fresh" unmelted plastic to work as the binding element. I have no pictures of this step, but those bag handles trimmed from earlier work very well for this task. Place the handle bits along the front and back seam and iron that area until it is fully fused into one piece.

Hurrah, you now have a bigger sheet to work with!







Making this simple wallet now just takes a couple stitches up the sides. To create the bottom of the wallet, fold up the bottom of your plastic. For those of you used to sewing with fabric, you may feel inclined to use pins to hold things in place while stitching...bad news! This material is not as durable as fabric is - if you poke holes in it they are pretty noticeable. Instead of using pins, you could use tape or paperclips, I've found both to be fairly useful.

As for the stitching part, it's up to you how to do the stitching. I chose to do a modified whipstitch/chainstitch with a little french knot thrown in. Came out like this:

Of course, with the stitching done on the sides, the top leaves a little something to be desired. At this point it just looks like a fancy envelope. Booo-ring.


So...what to do?



In my web research for all things related to plastic bag crafts, I came across instructions on how to make yarn out of plastic bags. Armed with this knowledge, I decided to make a rosette as a fastener.

So there you have it! A quick and simple fused plastic wallet.