My family has always called me the recycle queen...I've come come up with all kinds of stuff. Now, what does walmart bags and caking have in common? Plastic. I've used Walmart bags to make wreaths, purses, and now piping bags. I wanted to see if my idea would even work and took several bags... cut the handles off and bottoms off. I got out my ironing board and wax paper... Three deep and neatly laid out I put them in between my wax paper and ironed over it pretty good. Turn it over and do it again. Pull the wax paper off and you have a nice piece of plastic just the right flexibility. I cut a triangle out of the plastic and put the edges together and sealed it with the iron. Looks just like a piping bag. (BTW I was out of bags and an hour away from the cake supply store ) Now this is the reason I'm posting this... What do you think ? Is it sanitary if it's washed? And if I use the plastic wrapped Buttercream method in it will that be ok? It works like a charm. I can make the bags the size I want and for free. All comments welcome.

My thought is that the plastic in decorating bags is safe to use with food. I'm guessing that the plastic used in walmart bags is not food safe? I'd also be careful because if you carried cleaning supplies or other things with chemicals home in the bags that those products can leak and maybe leave the chemicals behind.

It just doesn't sound food safe to me. Ingenious and economical, yes, but not food safe.

okie dokie what I wanted to know. Thank you!

Ok I can't stop thinking about it... What if I used cheap ziplock bags to make a more durable and thicker plastic? Or buy a big sheet of clear plastic liner from the fabric store and make up my own? $5 a piping bag is hard for me to pay! I am such a cheap O!

Where are you buying them? $5 for each plastic piping bag.... I hope you are kidding. From Global Sugar Arts you can get a 100 count box for $20 plus $6.80 shipping. That's only $0.268 per bag.

Have you looked at buying piping bags from ebay? I've bought Wilton bags for as little as $2 a bag and I have used some of them for up to 5 years. I like your idea about reusing but I agree, I would be cautious about using non-food plastic bags.

Disposable piping bags are really cheap, and the time it would take to make possibly non-foodsafe bags doesn't sound like it would make sense. I'd stick to buying disposable piping bags and recycle the Walmart bags.

Thanks guys. I know you think I'm really crazy Other than the fact that I live an hour from purchasing the piping bags, whether they be disposable or wilton and yes I was talking about Wilton bags, I'd have to buy them ahead of time . Thanks cherrycakes I'll have to check ebay. Nevertheless, I've always tried to "make my own" that's how I got into cakes. It was just an idea...

I admire your dedication to recycling, but I would view it as investing more time and effort into it than it was worth..... or that it actually saves. Especially since, as mentioned above, the disposable bags are so inexpensive anyway.

I just want to say that i like the imagination that you have, i would've never come up with with something like that even if its not food safe you really impressed me with your imagination and how you came up with it in the spot.

I bet you could come up with another use for them not involving food. Thats pretty genius!

You know you can always wash and reuse the disposable piping bags.Just a thought....