Stop Tossing Old Plastic Bags — Turn Them Into DIY Twine To Make A Basket

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Storing plastic shopping bags is a good idea until you realize you've basically hoarded more than what you need. While it's always handy to keep a couple around—for the times you need to line small trash bins or as waste bags when you need to pick up after your pet. But when your stash overflows your cache, you can turn these shopping bags into plastic yarn, otherwise known as "plarn". And with this recycled version of yarn, you can weave pretty much any fashion or household item, like a basket—which is always a good storage solution to have in your home.

This DIY consists of two phases: making the yarn and building the basket. First, you'll need plastic t-shirt bags (similar to those Thank You Plastic Bags you get from grocery stores) and a pair of scissors. If you plan on making the basket entirely from plarn, then these items, along with a crochet hook, is all you need. Alternatively, another method you can do is to make the basket starting with a paper-based foundation, then weave the plarn into the structure. Here, prepare some kraft paper, old newspapers, or pages off of old magazines, along with a glue stick and an 18-inch bamboo skewer like the Hopelf skewers from Amazon.

If you need a rough idea of how many plastic bags you'll need to make enough plarn for a basket, some crafters recommend starting with at least 30 plastic shopping bags, but you don't need to work all bags at once. The exact amount will depend on your basket's size and design, so having a few extra bags can be handy. Quantity aside, non-biodegradable, recyclable plastic bags work best for this project if you want your product to be more durable.

Making the plarn may sound like a dull, arduous task, but it can be a great way to pass time once you get the hang of it. To begin, lay one plastic shopping bag on a flat surface, cut the handles and the bottom seam, and set it aside for another creative way to repurpose plastic. After that, fold the plastic lengthwise until you form a strip that's about 1½ inch tall, then cut that into halves until you get 1-inch wide pieces. These strips will look like loops if you unfurl them, and you only need to thread them through each other to start making plarn. If you want stronger or wider plarn, you can braid different strands together until you get your desired width or thickness.

If you'd rather make the entire basket from plarn, you can crochet it instead using a basket pattern you can find online, such as this guide provided by Banana Moon Studio. But if you find this method a little complicated, you can still easily craft bespoke baskets by following alternative tutorials, such as one from A Crafty Concept using a combination of plarn and rolled strips of paper. To do this, start by rolling sheets of paper into long strips, starting from one corner and working your way diagonally. Here, you can use a wooden skewer to guide you in making tight rolls of paper, and apply glue on the inner side to prevent it from unfurling. Next, you'll roll these strips into a coil which will serve as the basket's base, also spreading glue along the edges of the coil to prevent it from separating.

After forming the base, start attaching paper strips vertically around its perimeter, spacing them evenly—these will act as the supporting ribs that can hold the plarn as you weave. Once those are set, weave your plarn horizontally around the vertical supports, alternating over and under each strip as you work your way up. Keep the strands snug but don't pull them too tightly at the risk of the plarn snapping. When you've reached your desired height for your basket, bend and loop the remaining ends of the vertical supports into each other to form one final, huge weave. Once you're done, trim any excess threads and glue stray pieces of plarn or paper to give your basket a more polished look.