This is my apron made from old plastic bags.
Every year Australian's use 6.9 BILLION plastic bags with most ended up in landfill or our waterways. It is said that plastic bags take over 400yrs to biodegrade and kill approximately 100 000 marine animals each year. So it is time to UPCYCLE!
After a bit of testing and experimenting, i was able to conclude that plastic bags are relatively easy to melt using an iron. However this changed the form of the plastic bag adding new qualities and characteristics. For example, i discovered that once ironed, plastic bags become very strong and when melted together also form a strong bond. This lead me to realise that I now had basically a plastic fabric which also meant i had semi waterproof fabric. I also tested what type of plastic bags are best suited, i found that normal shopping bags (from Woolies etc.) don't melt to well because they are so thin, they tend to melt too quickly and shrivel not leaving the best finish. I then went on to clothes shop plastic bags which come in a variety of colours and tend to be a thicker plastic leaving a much better and more colourful finish. The next issue i had was how to maximise the use of the original plastic bag, that being working around the shops logo. So i created a pattern using stripes! Which meant i could cut out the logo very easily and use as much of the bag as possible. The other issue was creating a pattern that you could use with any plastic bags and not necessarily have to use to much of the one type of bag, because as you know, thats not necessarily how "rubbish" works!
So my final product, is a strippy plastic apron! Which is "lined" or reinforced on the back with white shopping bags. It has pink satin ribbon (which could easily also be made from the plastic bags) stitched on for a tie and neck strap. I have used 2 large Glassons bags, 2 large Equip bags, 3 small bra shop bags, 7 white "woolies" shopping bags and part of a large Just Jeans bag. Although my apron is a little crunchy, the best thing about it, its that you can so easily just wipe it down when you spill something on it, less washing!
Plastic bags are a huge culprit when it comes to environmental pollution. If this apron was mass produced, there would be a sizeable reduction of plastic bags in landfill. The vibrancy of the colours would be welcome in the kitchen as well as the nature of plastic which would work well with spills etc. Is there any way to make it smooth rather than bumpy?
ReplyDeleteA very interesting idea, i do agree with you that plastic bags have been one of the major impacts into environmental pollution. One thing i would question is whether melting plastic bags is the best possible way in forming your product. You could have stitched or lined each bag instead of melting it to get your final product
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with Shanshan on stitching/lining the bags, because it does not give it the same strength as fusing plastic bags, and thus would be quite a different story as a use for an apron.
ReplyDeleteI think that getting away from the traditional use of fusing plastic bags to make bags or wallets and making them into an apron takes the perception of fusing plastic bags to a different perspective.
It makes use of the end result of fused plastic bags, strong, waterproof, and pretty much like plastic sheets. And the fact that you can simple just wipe the dirty stains away is a great advantage, especially in the kitchen where things could get messy!
Good work, I like the different perspective you took on fusing plastic bags.
nive and colourful and gorgeous i think this product would do really well... the only thing is if u were to use it in a kitchen would it melt again if u were cooking near a flame? good job though
ReplyDeleteWell done!! i like the way you combined each plastics to be one beautiful pattern....I saw you used it yesterday...quite tight on ur hipss...maybe just make it loser so u can move freely while u cooking..cheers!
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ReplyDeleteI like the way you made a nice and colourful pattern from wasted plastic bags, well done!
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