fusing plastic

Ok, I suppose I should share the fun. This is something I came by through this talented woman's blog. I have her warm fuzzies book too. This is the post that inspired me. And I can't wait for her new book. But I think the actually tutorial is on the Etsy labs tutorial site here.

A few extra things I learned:
If you get that really thin filmy plastic that comes home from the drycleaners you don't have to turn your bags inside out. You just fuse it over the top and it keeps the ink in. (This was a stroke of genius I had as I was collecting all Matt's discarded recycling bags from off the floor...)

Keep the iron moving. If the plastic starts to do a shrinky dink thing, then it will be all crumpled.

Strong plastic bags (shop bags as opposed to supermarket bags) work fine-even though that's not what the tutorial says, and you need less layers.

Don't pull off the parchment paper as soon as you have finished ironing. If you leave it a few seconds you'll start to hear a crinkling noise as it releases itself from the hot plastic. While the plastic is super hot it is really bendy and sticky and will stick to itself or just warp. Letting it cool a bit means your finished plastic is flatter. (This is something I wish I'd known up front as my first attempts were botched.

Use a denim needle on your sewing machine.

Don't try too complicated bag construction (ah hem, learned this the hard way) as this stuff is stiff and not easy to maneuver.

You need quite a few bags to make one fused bag...I'm actually running out and got really bummed yesterday as I mucked up my "big apple bag" that used my limited "I love NY" bags I had. [Will post photos later today.] Now I have none of those left...may have to go to a supermarket in NY just to get some more.

Warning:
These bags look great and are fun to make, but they really are more work than you think. And they are addictive, once you make one, you want to try it again and see how far you can take it. Oh and if you get plastic on your iron, it sticks!