Monday 13 April 2009

Ironing plastic

I'm juggling inside and outside work at the moment, dashing outside in betweeen showers to get the veg garden organised, and dreaming up new projects in my crafty workshop. I have been trying out some ironing carrier bags techniques and this is what happened. If you want to try it protect your iron by sandwiching the plastic between two pieces of paper, I used brown baking paper, which incidentally also doubles up as tracing paper. The iron needs to be on a medium setting and it's best if you iron both sides. I used eight layers of bags.
The pieces went a bit wavy because I swept the iron from side to side, I now know you have to also go up and down and round in circles to get a flatter more square piece. You can trim the edges if it is the wrong shape.

For this I used a charity sack, only the white part with no lettering, then I added some other coloured pieces. Fresh and simple comes from a bag of spuds, but you can also use bread bags.

This is a bigger piece, I added different colours, and types of plastic. The cats heads did not stick well as they were thicker. Also the eight layers did not bond too well because of the size, it needs more ironing along the edges, or reduce the size, smaller pieces are easier to work with.

I have yet to work out what to use them for, the finished piece is very strong and could be stitched together, they could also be welded together with more heat. Maybe a bit more practice is needed.
Daily spend - nothing

2 comments:

  1. I can remember the joy I had with some carrier bags and the iron. I have used the finished results to line a bag to make it waterproof.

    They also make lovely mobiles for a child's room

    Joan

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  2. I made a make up purse from ironed plastic bags and also a bag to keep my icing nozzles in... I used clear plastic bags and although they did distort a little under the iron they are still fairly see through. I am quite hooked on ironing plastic... and I saw it here first! Thank you.

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