Making Plarn from Plastic Grocery Bags

Thea Nortness uses plarn weft in her Bags On a Budget project, featured in Handwoven, January/February 2021. If you find your home overrun with disposable plastic grocery bags, consider trying this clever technique to give them new life: Create a long strip of plastic from each bag, and then use it as the weft in Thea‘s sturdy and attractive bags.

A recent global trend has seen many communities move away from the use of disposable plastic bags. If yours is among them, this technique of creating long strips from tubes could be applied to other items—such as T-shirts, to make tarn. What other tubes might there be that you could make into long strips to weave with? —Handwoven editors

Step 1: Lay the bag on a flat surface. Cut off the handles and the bottom seam, leaving a tube.

Step 2: Roll one of the folded edges toward the other side, stopping a couple of inches before the second fold.

Step 3: Using scissors, cut 1"-wide strips across the roll, stopping each cut several inches before the second fold.

Step 4: Unfurl the roll, letting the strips dangle. Place your nondominant arm through the tube with the uncut fold at the top.

Step 5: Starting at the edge closest to your hand, cut at a diagonal from the edge across the top fold to the first cut. That first strip will drop down. Cut across the top fold at a diagonal to the second cut.

Step 6: Continue cutting until you have a long strip of plarn.

Step 7: After you‘ve got your plarn (or tarn) cut up and ready to go, turn to p. 58 in Handwoven, January/February 2021, put on a warp, and weave some Bags on a Budget for yourself.

Illustrations by Ann Swanson

Published Nov. 30, 2020; updated Nov. 4, 2024