Making Rugs Out Of Plastic Bags

Gather the plastic bags.

Making rugs out of plastic bags.

John the apostle catholic church to create their own mats using about 700 plastic bags apiece. How to make a sleeping mat or rug using plastic. 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. Plastic bags have proven to be sturdy enough and a cost effective material for the carrying needs of retail and food store consumers.

Stop with the whining about using new bags already. Cut the plastic grocery bags into 1 inch wide strips. 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. Making your own custom sized carry bags out of plastic bags adds personal style and functionality while helping save the environment.

Meanwhile in norwalk iowa the mighty mat makers meet once a week at st. Weave each row in an opposite pattern as the previous row. If you know basic crochet stitches these colorful and easily cleaned rugs will work up quickly for the. All bags are used bags i have cut and stored flat.

To start weaving tie one end of the shopping bags to the top corner of the loom don t tie it to the cardboard tie it to the garbage bag or ribbon then weave the rest of the shopping bag over and under the garbage bags or ribbon strips. It does not matter if you cut them up and down or across. To make creating the colored rings in the rug easier i took my bags of bags and sorted the various bags into separate colors. Tape the top and bottom edges of the strips to the table with duct tape.

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. Attach more shopping bags as you go. 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.