Making Rugs Out Of Plastic Bags

Cut the plastic grocery bags into 1 inch wide strips.

Making rugs out of plastic bags.

How to make a sleeping mat or rug using plastic. A word of forewarning when putting out the call to action for collecting plastic bags be prepared for an avalanche of plastic bags. All bags are used bags i have cut and stored flat. If you know basic crochet stitches these colorful and easily cleaned rugs will work up quickly for the.

It does not matter if you cut them up and down or across. 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. Meanwhile in norwalk iowa the mighty mat makers meet once a week at st. To start the rug get the grocery bags which already cut by the way if you live in an apartment and you don t want to be snowed under with bags cut them store them in a simple little box and you can store hundreds and hundreds of bags in a simple box which is good because the box can take 160 to 200 bags.

Lay out 10 strips side by side vertically in front of you on a work surface to begin to make one half of the purse. To make creating the colored rings in the rug easier i took my bags of bags and sorted the various bags into separate colors. So far they have spent at least 100 hours on the project producing 18 mats that have been handed out to the homeless and there are many more to come. Stop with the whining about using new bags already.

Tape the top and bottom edges of the strips to the table with duct tape. Gather the plastic bags. Weave each row in an opposite pattern as the previous row. Attach more shopping bags as you go.

Plastic bags have proven to be sturdy enough and a cost effective material for the carrying needs of retail and food store consumers. 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. Making your own custom sized carry bags out of plastic bags adds personal style and functionality while helping save the environment.