My ingenious brother wanted to give his fireplace a new look. With a couple boxes of Airstone tiles from the home improvement store and some adhesive, he went to work.
Outdated fireplace about to get made over
A couple of evenings later, the fireplace is completely different!
Here’s a simple tutorial on making plastic yarn, otherwise known as plarn, from all those leftover plastic bags. I usually bring my reusable totes with me to the store but when I forget to bring them, I stash the plastic bags I get and make them into plarn. You cna craft anything from tote bags to rugs with this durable material.
First of all, gather up your plastic bags! They can be any size or color, or a combination of colors.
The printing on the bags will make colorful speckles as you work your project!
Work your bag so it is flat. Fold the edges from the handle in so you have a nice rectangle.
I like to fold my bags in half lengthwise. Cut off the handles and the base (the part that forms the bottom of the bag).
Cut the bag into strips. I like to cut mine 1-1/2 inches wide. You can cut thicker strips if you’d like. I can get eight or nine strips per bag.
Open up your strips to reveal the loops. Lay one open loop over the other.
Pass the right side of the loop on the right through the left side of the same loop. You’ll form something like a slip knot over the loop on the left.
Sounds confusing but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be looping TONS of bag pieces together for your plarn.
Gently pull the two bag pieces away from one another to form your knot. When you work with the plarn, this bump will not be noticed.
As you loop your pieces together, roll them into a ball so it’s easy to use.
Now you are ready to work with your plarn ball! Use a large hook to crochet.
You can knit with it or use a loom, or just about anything else you can do with bulky yarn.
Once you have mastered the technique, you can stack multiple bags at once and cut them with a rotary cutter.
I generally cut about five bags at a time to create 40 or more loops in minutes.
Here’s my finished tote bag, alternating colors for a striped effect.
Don;t want to make your own? You can purchase this one at www.lisarowell.com
For those occasions when I happen to forget my reusable totes in the car (or at home) while making those grocery store runs, we had amassed about 60 plastic bags. I cut them in strips and fastened them together. Before long, I had a big enough “plarn” ball to create this handy tote. This one is for sale at my online shop! I may have saved enough AGAIN to make another one!
Tote made from plastic bags
