Recycled Plastic Bag Pannier

I may have mentioned that I have been thinking of making panners.  So I ordered some fabric, thinking It was oilcloth and somehow I ended up with ordinary cotton. Silly me. So trying to make the best of what I had ordered,  I decided to find a way to make it plastic coated. 

While surfing I stumbled across a very interesting article on you tube titled  "how to make a cycle bag from trash bags" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB1mE8e35UY  I was totally inspired by the article and went off on one of my tangents and ended up with this







I started with the process shown ironing lots of bags together about 8 thickness thick.  They seem very bland to me, so I tried ironing right side facing, it worked, then there was no stopping me, as I ran out of carriers I started trying anything,  raiding the larder and freezer, and calling on my neighbour for resouces.  Some worked and some didnt stick. It was a real trial and error thing. 

As I didnt have any baking paper in,  I started off with the  plastic sandwiched between foil when pressing, but I later found that photo copying paper worked better for me, some colours did transfer onto the paper, but I just got a fresh piece.  This process takes up alot of carriers and a long time ironing.  I also found out that after you have ironed, to stop the paper from curling and to control it abit, I placed a flat object like a baking tray on top of the bag and paper until it cooled down.  

I built up lots of pieces and overlapped and machined patched smaller pieces together using a zigag stitch.  On hindsight I quite like the bigger pieces, they have more impact.  The style and measurement of the panniers were based on these gorgeous pink and orange clarijis panniers
http://velodrama.co.uk/shop/article_12/Clarijs-Double-Pannier-with-Shopping-bag---Orange_Pink.html?shop_param=cid%3D64%26aid%3D12%26
I have been  admiring for these for sometime, but a pit costly for me at the moment, hopefully one day I will have some.  
I havent quite enough for the other pannier yet, watch this space! I think when I have finished the other they will look fun and quirky, they are also incredibly light.  I dont know how long they will last, maybe intime the sun will damage them, they may fade and go brittle, time will tell. Ive used them  yesterday when I went to the village shop and they get quite a few comments.
What do you think?


Hubbie quickly adopted the bag on his bike, hope thats not the last Ive seen of them!