01/22/2012 - Plastic Boa - oooh la la

Let's play dress up! I made this fun boa for my daughter who likes to dress up from being a princess to being an explorer. This is a surprisingly easy project that just about any age can do...you just need lots and lots of newspaper bags (thanks Mama Jan for saving them for me!). At the office building I worked at in Illinois, my coworkers and I used to grab all the bags (we didn't take their newspapers) from the other office suites on our way in everyday, so we amassed quite a collection. This doesn't have to be just for kids to use...this could be fun if you are trying to save money at a bachelorette party.

Recycled Material: plastic newspaper bags
Other Material: none
Tools: scissors 

How I did it: The first thing I did was take two of the plastic newspaper bags and cut them lengthwise so when I laid it out, the length doubled. There were seams on both sides that I used as a cutting guide. I bunched both pieces together lengthwise and tied them together to use as the base, leaving about 2" hanging off the knot and made the length about 4'. At first I started tying whole bags onto the base, but realized I would run out before I covered the entire base, so I folded the bags in half lengthwise and cut them in half. I then folded the smaller piece in half and tied it once around the base. I continued this until I covered most of the base leaving about 3" or 4" on both ends. I knotted the ends about 3 times in the same place to keep the smaller bags from sliding off and made sure that the knots of the smaller bags at the ends were really tight. I used the scissors to trim the bags down so they were all even and also to cut down the bag bottoms that were still intact. Once I trimmed the pieces down, I fluffed up the pieces and had a fun, flirty boa. I stashed the trimmings to use for a plastic fuse project later on down the road.


What I would do differently: This is a pretty easy project, so there isn't much that I would have done differently, other than paying attention to the order of colored bags. One side has more color than the other, but this is what happens when I am on a roll. This could be done using grocery bags or any other thin plastic bag, but would require a lot more cutting. This project is actually quite fool proof and easy to change anything you don't like. Once I get more bags, I am going to make a matching tutu.