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Last year one of my New Year’s resolutions was to see if I could make a large, sturdy, durable and reusable shopping bag out of… shopping bags. After several Google and Ravelry searches, I failed to find a pattern that I liked, so I designed my own. I am so excited to share the finished pattern with you. Enjoy!

Plarn  (a portmanteau of the words plastic and yarn) is a homemade up-cycled “yarn” made out of plastic shopping bags. You can use any kind of plastic shopping bag to make plarn, as long as the bags are clean, dry, and do not have holes. Save the bags with small holes for core material. There are lots of tutorials on YouTube on how to make plarn.

You will need at least 100 bags cut into 6 strips to make this bag. To be honest, I lost count of how many bags it took to make this.

You will also need to make core material. The tutorial I used can be found HERE.

How to make core material:

1. Flatten bag and fold in half length-wise, 2. On folded side, about 2 inches from the bottom of the bag, make a vertical cut to just inside the side of the bag pleats, discard this square of bag & unfold bag, you should have 2 new “handles” at the bottom of the bag. Cut 2 more bags in this fashion to make 1 strip of core material. Tie handles of bags together the same way you tie plarn strips together.

Add this pattern to your Ravelry queue

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Ravelry – $4

You will need:

• 100+ plastic shopping bags
• a size J/5.75mm crochet hook (I’m using Boye’s Ergonomic J/5.75 crochet hook)
• tapestry needle, a blunt metal needle works best (such as THESE stainless steel needles)

Glossary

ch = chain     sc = single crochet      sl st = slip stitch        blo = back loops only      st(s) = stitch(s)

Bottom of bag: 

ch 21,

Row 1: sc in 2nd chain from hook, sc in the remaining 19 chains, ch 1, turn.

Row 2: sc in each sc across, ch 1 and turn.

Repeat row 2 until piece measures 14 1/2 inches, or desired length.

Ch 1 & sc around entire bottom, making 3 sc in each corner, join with slip stitch to first sc.

Sides Of Bag:

With the core material, sc around in back loops only.  Join to first sc with a slip stitch.

Rnds 2-4: ch 1, sc in each stitch around, join with a slip stitch to first sc.

Rnd 5: with core material, sc round, join with slip stitch to first sc.

Repeat Rnds 2-5 until bag is desired height.

Handles:

Rnd 1: ch 1, with core material, sc in next 6 stitches, ch 65, skip 21 stitches and sc in next 39 sts, ch 65 skip 21 stitches and sc to end.

Rnd 2: ch 1, with core material, sc in each st around, join with sl-st to first sc.

Fasten off.

Weave in ends, being careful to not poke through the plastic.

Pattern is for personal use only, not for commercial use.