The new suit worn by Rosa Ferrigno looked like it was knitted using a conventional yarn. However, once you touch it or hear the rustling that is the defining trait of plastic you realize that this dress is special. You are right; the suit and the jacket worn by Rosa Ferrigno has been made using 300 plastic grocery bags.
Rosa Ferrigno is 75 years old and a Sicilian immigrant from Greece living in western New York. She is a super-active woman who spends most of her days taking care of a huge yard that features flower and vegetable gardens. But during winter time, she stays busy by taking up intricate knitting projects. Her most challenging project so far was the one she took up last year; a trendy suit crafted from hundreds of brown plastic grocery bags. The result is ah-mazing, to say the least!
Rosa Ferrigno worked as a seamstress before she started her family. She got the idea for this unique suit last August. She was attending a family picnic and witnessed a guest carrying a purse that was made from repurposed plastic bags. The whole idea intrigued her and led her daughter and her to search for instructions on how to make a dress on YouTube. She ended up creating a purse from red, white, and blue plastic JC Penney bags and even braided one using brown Wegmans plastic bags. However, that was just the beginning!
Once Rosa Ferrigno had completed her second plastic bag purse, she realized that she needed something to match it with and thus began the project of making a shirt and jacket from the Wegmans bags. She began the project by cutting the plastic bags up into strips and then attaching them together for creating strips similar to yarn. However, she needed big needles for knitting plastic that didn’t exist. That didn’t stop her, and she created her own needles.
It took Rosa Ferrigno a total of two months to complete the project. The jacket was made using 170 plastic bags whereas the skirt required another 140 plastic bags. The result is a mesmerizing suit that fits her perfectly and has blown away her friends and everyone online! Jo Natale, Wegman’s vice president of media relations, said, ‘We love it when our customers reuse or recycle grocery bags, but never have we seen a work of art like Rosa’s!’