Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Plastic Bag Rug


This is a rug made out of plastic grocery bags (plastic bag yarn or Plarn!). The first step is making the yarn. This is crochet using only the crochet stitch. I am still a newbie crocheter that doesn't like to follow patterns so I made this "pattern" up as I crocheted. This is a work in progress that I've been crocheting off and on for a few months now. At one point I ran out of grocery bags (we try to mostly use cloth but forget fairly often) so I had to put this project on hiatus for awhile. My goal is to make it dining room rug sized (such as under your table), but I may get sick of working on it before I actually get this far. (please note skinny cat used for size reference) Due to the nature of the plastic material this rug will flatten if books are placed on top of it, so if my crocheting curls a bit it doesn't really matter.

7 comments:

  1. are you using their original colors? I was wondering if you could dye with coffee or tea.

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  2. How do you make the yarn out of a bag? How wide? Flat or twisted?

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  3. To make yarn from plastic bags or T-Shirts, start at the bottom/hem. On the bags, snip off the bottom seam, then cut a spiral, about 1/2" to 1" wide, around and around until you reach the point on the handle/top where you cannot get your width any longer. An ordinary grocery bag will give you about 60'-80' of plarn.

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  4. The plastic is not able to absorb liquids, so normal dyes wouldn't work. It is fun to collect bags from different stores and make patterns out of their differing colors. I also use cotton string along with the bag (holding the 2 together) to make baskets, hats, purses and other items. I have also used twine, both as a yarn and as a coil inside the crochetted stitches for "body".

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  5. Remember plastic bags are flammable.

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