How To Make A Mat Out Of Plastic Grocery Bags

This is a great way to involve your local church group knitting or crochet group youth group or scout organization with collecting and sorting the bags.

How to make a mat out of plastic grocery bags.

Regardless of who uses it it s a great way to recycle. Instead of becoming landfill plastic bags can be used for fun craft projects. One easy project appropriate for ages six to adult is weaving a doormat from left over bags. In particular plarn can be used as sleeping mats for people.

Lay a plastic grocery bag flat on a table. Fold the bag lengthwise in half. These sleeping mats make great supplies for the homeless population allowing them to sleep comfortably wherever they need to. To make creating the colored rings in the rug easier i took my bags of bags and sorted the various bags into separate colors.

Cut off the handles and the bottom of the bag with scissors. It also makes a great addition to any camping trip. Rather than throwing them out you can reuse them by crocheting them into multi purpose mats known as plarn plastic yarn. Gather the plastic bags.

A word of forewarning when putting out the call to action for collecting plastic bags be prepared for an avalanche of plastic bags. How to make plarn plastic bag yarn the first time i learned about plarn yarn created by cutting and tying together strips of plastic grocery bags was in 2005 when british designer erika knight was a guest on a tv show i used to host called knitty gritty she showed it made using a rainbow variety of bags an array of which i have yet to come across here in the states and knitted into a. The bag ladies as they call themselves also specialize in making large tote bags out of the plastic. Opting to use green canvas bags for your grocery shopping is an effective option but many people still have excess plastic bags lying about the place.

While the blue or yellow bags can be mostly sorted together the white bags tend to have accent colors that can come out in the finished rug. John the apostle catholic church to create their own mats using about 700 plastic bags apiece. Meanwhile in norwalk iowa the mighty mat makers meet once a week at st.