Trying Something New: Fused Plastic Pouch

I am so excited to share this project with you today!  Mostly, because I have put off trying this technique for a long time because I was scared to death that I would destroy my iron or just screw the whole process up somehow!  LOL!  But, seriously, it is not hard at all and I LOVE that I can upcycle SO many plastics that come into our house now!!!

We do try to avoid bringing them in by using reusable bags and our lunches are packaged in waste-free containers rather than plastic baggies and such, but bread and bagels and the occasional trip to the store when you forget your reusables manage to sneak plastic in here and there and now I can feel less guilty about that because I can TOTALLY use it!!!



This is the back side of my bag, so you can see what it looks like without the embellishments on it. I used a total of six layers of plastic (3 bags) and fused them with an ordinary iron.



I added a vintage zipper that I had lying around. You could totally use a zipper that you pulled off of an old piece of clothing, if you have one. I did have one, but tragedy struck and a craft fail resulted, so I had to start this little project over again and went with this zipper this time around. HA! It happens to us all at some point.

Right?

Tell me it happens to us all so I feel better, K? HA!



A couple of things to know about fused plastic:

It behaves like fabric in many ways, but it has paper like qualities as well. For example, while it is flexible and easily sewn, once you put a whole in it - it's there forever and it will be visible. Also, it does require a fairly strong stitch, so if you hand sew your pouch choose your stitches wisely. This was one of the reasons I had to restart mine - my first stitch choice was far less than adequate. It has a sort of oil cloth feel to it. I think it would make an AWESOME apron or rain coat. Actually, I have some big plans for a raincoat, but I need to collect a few more of the bags that I want to use for it. Oh, well, guess I'll have to go shopping! HA!



Also, it punches much like paper, so you can use paper punches with it, which is sort of cool. I punched a scalloped circle to use as part of the embellishment portion you see here.



And there you have it! My first ever fused plastic project! And I managed to not burn the house down and our iron is still in working order...or so I hear. I only use it for the occasional project - The Hubbums uses it for clothes or something, but I don't know much about that! HA!