Betty White learned to knit, using traditional yarn, at the age of 10. Now at age 62, Ms. White, who lives on the west side of Michigan, covets plastic bags.

Not just any plastic, but perfect, “cool” bags, especially neon green bags.  The bags must be good looking as White has no use for ugly bags.

What does this artist, who by day teaches English as a second language, do with all these plastic bags?   She crochets!  White takes her coveted bags and crochets hats, totes, dresses and more from strips cut from plastic shopping bags.

White doesn’t use any patterns to create plastic designs, such as the vintage-style, one-piece bathing suit she recently completed. To date, White has made several dresses from these bags and started another using  soft white bags for an evening gown crocheted from more than 70 bags. The dress, with a lace-up back, took months to stitch, and it’s unusually stunning for a gown made of plastic.

Because she doesn’t add any material, White’s products are 100 percent recyclable and can be placed in the recycle bin when they wear out.

There are several sites that show you how to make plastic yarn, or “plarn”.  [tag]GooseFlesh[/tag] blog has very good instructions and pictures, [tag]My Recycled Bags[/tag] is another good sourceand has many good articles about green crafting.

Using your imagination, who knows, maybe you too can become a plastic design artist like [tag]Betty White[/tag].