Prepare Plastic Bags for Knitting or Crochet
If you have decided to knit or crochet a bag from plastic bags, you'll need to know how to prepare the plastic bag first. This article demonstrates how to create the ribbon of plastic needed for creating the "plastic yarn" that you can use for knitting or crocheting your new bag.
Steps
- Trim the bottom seam from the plastic bag.
- Unfold as much of the bag as possible. Flatten it out.
- Fold the bag not quite in half width wise (with the fold perpendicular to the seam you cut off). Let one of the edges stick out about 1 inch/2.5 cm. Fold the part you already folded in half, repeating until the folded part is also about 1 inch/2.5 cm wide.
- Cut off the handles.
- About every inch or 2.5 cm, cut the folded part of the bag with vertical slits. Make sure you cut all the way through the folded part, but try not to cut into the unfolded part of the bag.
- Grab the unfolded part of the bag, and shake gently. The folded part will unroll into a fringe.
- Open up the unfolded part of the bag and spread flat. It helps to slide in a piece of cardboard or a cardboard tube under the unfolded part so that you don't accidentally cut through the fringe area.
- Make a cut from the center (width wise) of the unfolded part to the nearest cut, diagonally.
- Keep cutting across the unfolded part, diagonally, connecting the different cuts.
- The last cut will be similar to the first, finishing in the center, width wise, of the unfolded part. You have just turned the plastic bag into a single long, thin, plastic ribbon.
- Roll the plastic ribbon into a ball. Now you can knit something like a pencil holder.
Tips
- Use the same procedure to recycle old T-shirts into "yarn" for soft crocheted chair pads, pet beds, and little rugs.
- Try using different colored bags to make rainbow effects.
- Plastic ribbon yarn can be used with any type of crochet hook or knitting needle (i.e. metal, wood, plastic, etc), whatever you’re comfortable with using and gives a suitable gauge for working your project.
Warnings
- Keep plastic bags away from small children. They are a potential source of suffocation.
- Cats are also notorious for swallowing things they shouldn't. Plastic yarn could mean an expensive trip to the vet.
- Beware of the cat––claws and plastic bag yarn don't mix.
Things You'll Need
- Plastic bags
- Scissors
- Pattern for knitting or crocheting bag
Related Articles
- Knit a Bag from Plastic Bags
- Knit a Simple Bag
- Knit a Scouring Pad from Orange Bags
- Crochet a Quahog Beach Bag
- Create a Seat out of Ziploc Bags and a Trash Bag
Sources and Citations
- Original source of article from Pie and Coffee, How to Knit a Plastic Bag, http://www.pieandcoffee.org/2005/11/17/how-to-knit-a-plastic-bag/. Shared under the creative commons share-alike license.
