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DIY – Make Your Own Plarn – Plastic Yarn from Shopping Bags

November 10, 2014


I recently moved all of my stuff from one room in my house to another room in my house. You would not believe all of the plastic shopping bags I pulled out of my closest! I would need like five or more plastic bag bag holders to house my collection – Yikes! It doesn’t help that I can’t just put them out in my recycling bin, as it is not recyclable in this manner.

I decided to try my hand at making plarn, and a handbag.

This process does take quite a long time as you must cut up all of the bags and then loop them all together and roll into a ball (if you feel like it in the end). So you may want to put together a small bowl of fruit, grab a cup of coffee, put on your favorite show/movie or whatever you would like by your side to help pass the time.
It took me approximately 3 minutes to cut up on bag and loop all the pieces together.

First things, first. I sorted my plastic bags into piles of the stores they came from. I wanted my handbag to have a consistent coloring to it. 
I concluded I had the most bags from Winn Dixie (White and Black), and the most amount of colored bags from Walmart (Gray).

I pulled out 40 Winn Dixie Bags and 10 Walmart Bags and got to work.

Below you will find the tutorial for creating plarn so you can make your own! Free handbag pattern to follow!


11.22.14 UPDATE: Today, I received an email notification for a new post from Jenny of Crochet is the Way – How to Make Delicate Thread Weight Plarn. It is a great tutorial showing you how to use a rotary cutter and the spiral method of making plarn. It’s a great alternative to this way.

Lay your plastic bag down flat.
It doesn’t have to be perfect, just relatively close.
Otherwise you’ll go crazy once you figure in all those other bags!
Don’t mind the scissors – it was windy out.

Fold your bag in half once.

Fold you bag in half again.
*If you’re using a larger bag, or a more stretched out bag, then
you may need to fold your bag again. It’s up to you.

Cut off the handles. Make sure you cut down far enough to get
the piece from where the bag was attached to the rack.

Cut off the bottom binding piece of the bag.

This is what your handle-less and bottom-less bag will look like.

Begin cutting strips. I cut 1″ strips. I did not outright measure,
just eyeballed it.
I found that anything smaller made the strips too thin making it
easy to break in the connecting process.

This is the last strip. Just because it is the last one, do
not just put it with the rest. Cut it down to match the size
of your other strips.

Here are your cut strips.
Mine measure 3.5″ long by 1″ wide, and I was able to cut about
14 strips from 1 Walmart bag, and 11 strips from 1 Winn Dixie
bag.

Here is one strip unfolded, compared to a folded strip.
Unfolded, it measures about 19″ long.

When you open your strips up, you will see these loops on
both ends. You will begin the looping process here.
Insert one loop into the other.
You want to create a “U” shape with the piece that
you inserted into the other.
You’ll take the right-side piece and move in to the
left through the loop on the other side.

Then pull to tighten the knot.
Don’t pull too tight or fast because if it gets caught on itself, you
will break/rip the plastic piece.
If your piece does get caught on itself, hold one
with one hand (see where my thumb is), and
pull the top and bottom pieces on the other
side one at a time.
Yay! You’ve got two pieces connected! And you are
on your way to having your own plarn to work up a
project with.
Two of my pieces connected measure about 37.5″ in length.
1 Winn Dixie bag all looped together measured about 180″ in
length.

Enjoy making your own plarn!

Since the plastic bags are waterproof, this is a good thing to use to make cosmetic bags and soap dishes out of (to name a few), and also durable enough to make tote/market bags out of. You could also make baskets for organizing in your home, especially in the laundry room or garage area.


*If you would like a PDF version of this post, you may get one through my Etsy shop for a small fee. This fee is to compensate for the view/s lost once you no longer need to return to the blog for the information, as you will have your own copy.
Shop EyeLoveKnots – DIY How To Make Plarn.


Linked Up To…
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Filed Under: Free Crochet Patterns, Uncategorized, Upcycling Tagged With: Bathroom, Crochet, DIY, Earth Day, Eco-Friendly, FREE, Home, Kitchen, Organization, Recycle, UPDATE

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Comments

  1. Donna Wilkes says

    November 11, 2014 at 10:36 pm

    Cute upcycling idea for all those bags hiding out around the house. Thanks for sharing it at Make It Monday.

    Reply
    • knots1prime says

      November 12, 2014 at 12:35 am

      Thank you for visiting EyeLoveKnots! I will have the free pattern for the handbag up on next weeks Make It Monday.

      Reply
    • Karin kahn says

      August 1, 2019 at 11:27 am

      Thank you for the instructions, but why do you waste the handle section? – If you cut far enough down you can make one big loop out of that as well.

      Reply
      • Alexandra says

        August 1, 2019 at 11:47 am

        Bag handles contain seams and a lot of added plastic folded up. I don’t use them.

        Reply
  2. Kersten Lindhardt says

    November 14, 2014 at 7:24 pm

    This is so clever!!

    Reply
    • knots1prime says

      November 15, 2014 at 12:32 pm

      Thanks 🙂 Now I don't have to worry about all of my shopping bags at home. Sometimes I can't believe how many I accumulate but they are very useful for things around the house.

      Reply
  3. Angelique Vela says

    November 16, 2014 at 3:54 pm

    Thank you! Your way off linking the loops together makes this so much easier and faster.

    Reply
    • knots1prime says

      November 17, 2014 at 11:22 pm

      Glad I could make the process easier! It is quite tedious.

      Reply
  4. Kimberly Lewis says

    November 17, 2014 at 6:14 pm

    Hello cute lady! So cool. Pinned. We really appreciate you taking the time to stop by our party. It wouldn’t be a party without you. Please join us on Monday at 7 pm. Happy Monday! Lou Lou Girls

    Reply
    • knots1prime says

      November 17, 2014 at 11:19 pm

      I shall make my way over soon! Thanks for the invite.

      Reply
  5. Jenny Guldin says

    November 22, 2014 at 3:44 pm

    Alexandra, thanks for the link! *Here's a tip for what else you can make with plarn: A plastic bag holder! Great tutorial.
    Jenny
    crochetistheway.blogspot.com

    Reply
    • knots1prime says

      November 22, 2014 at 4:50 pm

      Very true. Good idea.

      Reply
  6. Verna says

    July 27, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    I have a huge old Toys R Us bag stuffed as much as possible with plastic bags that I need to do this for. Then I’ll probably make a couple of mats but I fear they may slippery.

    Reply
    • Alexandra says

      July 28, 2020 at 8:24 am

      I don’t think they’ll be slippery, unless maybe if on tile or wood, but then you could either sew on a shelf liner to the bottom or try one of the techniques for making slippers slip resistant, like puffy paint. They are kind of thick, which I might be concerned about with tripping over maybe. I’ve been wanting to make some rugs from my home too. I think it’s a great way to use up the plastic bags.

      Reply
  7. helen / hellosewing says

    March 3, 2021 at 6:41 am

    Plarn is cool! I’ve bookmarked this. I love all ideas that help me stay on top of the plastic bags mess.
    I used to rummage around in the cupboard under the sink for bags which seemed to unfold all on their own, so I came up with a plastic bag holder from fabric https://hellosewing.com/diy-plastic-bag-holder-pattern/ – it helps a ton, but I really need to upcycle at least some of them
    Have a wonderful week ahead
    xo,
    Helen

    Reply
    • Alexandra says

      March 14, 2021 at 11:04 am

      This is so great! I have a couple bag holders that I crocheted. You’re so right – so much better than bags just being everywhere! What I do for Plarn bags is I check the bags for holes. The ones without holes go in a holder in the kitchen to be used, and the ones with holes go into a holder in the laundry room to be turned into Plarn.

      Reply
  8. kalie | Love to sew says

    June 8, 2021 at 9:54 am

    This is great! You come up with a great Idea how to save our bags in no time.

    Reply
    • Alexandra says

      June 18, 2021 at 1:14 pm

      Thanks! I love being able to recyle the ones with holes that might otherwise end up in the trash.

      Reply

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Welcome!

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Hey! I'm Alexandra, the blogger and creator behind EyeLoveKnots and On Rockwood Lane! My passion is being creative. My favorite thing to do is crochet, and you will almost always find me having a cup of coffee and working on a new crochet project, but when I'm not doing that, you might find me out at a local park rollerblading, baking some fresh cookies, picking veggies in the garden or re-decorating for a new season or holiday. My two cats are great supervisors for all my adventures (minus the being outside because they think it's too hot in Florida to be anywhere but inside), and make sure I take plenty of breaks.

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