To celebrate Earth Day, I bought a new cloth bag to carry groceries home in. I love these bags for many reasons. First of all, I never have to grab a basket or a cart if I’m just getting a few things. Usually I will just fill the bag and go instead of buying more than what I need. Plus, all of the bags I use have long straps, so it is super easy to carry a tote of groceries on each shoulder instead of 10 plastic bags in hand. I try to keep several cloth bags in my car all the time so that I can just take one into any store. Here is some great information about getting rid of plastic bags!

Today I am going to share with you all how to make “yarn” from plastic bags.

Step 1: Lay your plastic bag out flat.
Step 2: Cut off the top (handles) and the bottom. You should have an open cylinder left.
Step 3: Fold this piece of plastic into a flat strip.
Step 4: Cut this strip leaving about 2 inches of space between each cut. You are left with some plastic circles!
Step 5: Lay one plastic circle strip on top of another.
Steps 6 & 7: Connect each piece together using the knots shown above.
Step 8: Pull the knot tight, but be careful not to tear the plastic or you will have to pull the broken plastic pieces out!

Step 9: Roll your “yarn” into a ball and it is ready to use!

Here are a few purses that I made to auction to benefit the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2008:

I bought some reusable cloth bags from Food Lion for just 89 cents each! I also switched to brown paper bags for cleaning the litter box, so I’m going to plan on reusing what plastic bags I have to make another bag. Here is one that I made last year:

I’d like to make a tote-sized one. They are very sturdy, and also waterproof!

Check out this site for information about countries that have banned plastic bag use!