How to Use Fabric and Plastic Bags to Save Money and Craft Home Goods

Inflation is a real problem, especially for anyone shopping for eggs and other staple groceries. Along with food, the cost of materials is also rising, making clothing, craft supplies, and furniture more expensive, too. To save money, many fiber artists are turning to their hobby and crafting items for everyday use.

Fiber arts is certainly a vehicle for artistic expression, but in tough times it can be so much more. Crochet, knit, and even embroidery can spice up basic clothing and bedding at home, and they can also be used to craft items that would otherwise cost money. Pet bedding, cold weather gear like balaclavas, blankets, dish scrubbers and more can all be made from yarn.

If times are really tough or if you’re jonesing for a sustainable crafting project, yarn for crochet and other fiber arts can be made from scratch. Both scrap fabric and plastic bags can be cut and joined to make balls of yarn, removing pounds of waste from landfills and putting it to good use instead. Which material you choose will depend on your project, but our guide quickly covers how to make both.

Plarn: Making Yarn From Plastic Bags

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, plastic bags are horrible for the environment.

“Birds often mistake shredded plastic bags for food, filling their stomachs with toxic debris. For hungry sea turtles, it's nearly impossible to distinguish between jellyfish and floating plastic shopping bags,” their site reads.

Despite the dangers of plastic bags, Americans use 100 billion every year, requiring 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture.

To make better use of plastic bags, consider turning them into yarn for fiber arts. First, fold a plastic grocery bag in half so that the handles meet. Fold the bag in half again so that the bag makes a thin strip with both handles at the top. Cut the bag’s bottom seam and top handles off. Cut the plastic bag into inch-wide loops, double them up, and tie them together to create strong plarn. This YouTube tutorial is an excellent guide.

After making quite a bit of length, wind the plarn into a ball and store it for future use. We’ll cover some of the most basic crochet projects you can make for a sustainable life below.

Fabric Yarn: Making Yarn From Scrap Material

In addition to plarn, scrap fabric can be used to make scrap yarn, sometimes called rag yarn. Rag rugs made from recycled clothing are popular with many consumers, but fabric yarn can also be used to make pet beds, baskets, blankets, new clothing, and more.

Just like plarn, fabric yarn also prevents tons of waste from ending up in landfills. According to Earth.org, the fashion industry is wreaking havoc on the environment. The average US consumer tosses around 81 pounds of clothing each year. The industry generates 20 percent of the world’s wastewater each year, and nearly 10 percent of ocean microplastics were created by clothing or fashion. Fabric yarn might seem like a small matter but the more you make, the less clothing can pollute fragile ecosystems.

A piece of clothing, a sheet, or any fabric material you can lay flat should be cut into inch-wide strips, then knotted together at the ends to make the yarn. Like plarn, it should be wound into a ball for storage or before starting a project. This YouTube tutorial is easy enough to follow, and a similar video shows how to twist the fabric scraps if you want to make a stronger, thinner twine.

What to Make With Fabric Yarn and Plarn

While the possibilities for crocheting and knitting with fabric yarn and plarn are endless, there are a few ideas we particularly love.

In 2016, local news outlet FOX8 WGHP covered a group effort to provide homeless community members with bed rolls made of plarn. The short video describes how to make plarn and explains the pattern for making a plarn bed roll. The rolls are thick and relatively waterproof, making them candidates for yoga mats, pet beds, or underlayment in construction projects.

Another craft website lists sandals, grocery bags, hats, throw rugs, and more as suitable plarn projects, showcasing the practicality of this strong fiber art material. Because it’s often made of neon yellow, white or gray plastic, your plarn items may not be the most colorful or aesthetically pleasing, but they’re sure to last a long time and provide lots of use.

Fabric yarn, on the other hand, can be much more pleasing to the eye. Depending on the pattern and color of fabric used, you might wish to create clothes, rugs, dolls, cushions, meditation pillows, wall hangings, and macrame. This list of t-shirt yarn projects is a great place to look for inspiration.

When fiber artists allow themselves to think outside the box, anything is possible. Crafting can become a way to prevent waste, recycle goods, and protect the environment from climate change. It’s also a way to craft legitimately useful items that can save hundreds of dollars over time — a big deal to most households these days.