craftgrrl | fusing plastic tutorial + 2 crafty ideas

ohh yeah! I finished the tutorial

edit: fixed the grammar and spelling errors

things you will need
sewing machine
iron
iron board
4- 8 plastic bags depending on thickness
2 sheets of parchment paper/ poster board or anything like one of these
scissors

things you might need
embroidery stuff
fabric
1 zipper
a zipper foot
1 felt pen
ribbon
light box (for embroidery)

to start you need 4-8 plastic bags I just use 4 because the ones from raleys are pretty thick I suggest using 4-5 for grocery bags but for bags like ones that the news paper comes in I would use 6-8

you might want to stack and smooth them out a bit

if you are using grocery bags I would fold the bag in half and cut it like in the picture

next you cut it open depending if you want the design or not, I don't really care for it so ill just cut it on the side

then you lay it on top of one piece of parchment paper and smooth it out a bit

repeat for the rest of the bags and lay them out the way you want depending if you want to preserve the design or not, like I said I don't care for mine so I just lay them on top of each other in no sort of patter or w/e then lay out another peace of parchment paper on top

now I set my iron to acrylic * silk with no steam/ moisture on other irons it might not have this setting so play around a bit I heard that using the rayon setting works the best if you have that but mine doesn't

this is the fun part, you might want to open a window near by I think the iron and plastic may release some harmful stuff, now just iron it. You know it's working when it makes a crinkling sound kinda like the snap crackle pop of plastic, you might want to flip it over when you think its almost done just to give it a more even texture and consistency, don't worry about the edges to much but try to iron them as well
AND ALL WAYS KEEP THE IRON MOVING

it should look a bit like this when you're done I think it looks a bit like those fancy garbage bags that stretch out

try hard to keep it not looking like this. This happens when I get angry and directly put the iron on top of the plastic, put my hands and on my hips and say "WHY WONT YOU FUSE!?"

it will be hot so let it cool off for a bit and you're done!
now try and experiment on the plastic and make like plastic collages or what ever

But what to do with all this fused plastic?
I have to ideas for you and I'll show you how

you can make a pouch or/ and a head band!

to make the pouch you just cut 2 squares of plastic and 2 squares of fabric
you can embroider on the plastic like I did, felt pens work best when copping over an image to embroider and when you finished you just iron it again the same way but with the iron on one setting lower.

now you lay down the fabric right side up and the plastic right side down with the zipper sandwiched in between, but if you want the fabric on the outside then just do the opposite

now pin and sew, make sure you have a zipper foot in, it make things 10X easier, it's super easy to sew too this was the first time I sewed a zipper so don't be to afraid

now fold the plastic part back so the wrong sides touch and sew on the zipper again
you don't need to pin if you sew on the fabric side up

now do the same for the other side

now you might want to unzip the zipper like 1/3 of the way and pin and sew
it's hard to tell in this picture but you want the zipper ends to not be flat but to be folded (hot dog or land scape style depending on what you say)

then you finished sewing the edges (try not to break the needle like I did) unzip the zipper and pull out the out side part and sew that bottom side of the inside and you're done

to make the head band is super easy!
cut a long strip that can rap around your head
and sew a ribbon on the under side

FIN!
I want you to try this but I also want you to try your own stuff