(LEX 18)– Women in Boyd County are putting plastic shopping bags to good use by weaving them into beautiful mats to help others.
The Boyd County Homemakers are turning trash into treasure, spending hours every week crocheting, weaving, cutting, and trying to transform the bags into sleeping mats.
“Never did I dream you could take grocery bags and turn them into something this beautiful or useful,” said Barbara Preston with Boyd County Homemakers.
Over the past decade, they estimate that they’ve crafted 100 three foot by six moot mats. Each one takes about 35 hours to make and uses anywhere from 500 to 700 bags. The bags, or “plarn” as they call it, comes to them from all over.
“My daughter lives in North Carolina, she can get a color of bags we can’t get here so she sends them to me,” said Preston.
The mats warm with body heat, are easy to clean and keep bugs away. They’re donated to homeless shelters and other charities like the Red Cross. Every bit of the plastic is recycled.
“It also excited me that not only could we help the homeless but we could also keep the bags out of the landfills,” she said.
Each are unique with their own design and the mats are giving life to items usually tossed away.
“It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it,” said Preston.
The homemakers partner with their county extension office and you’ll be able to catch them at the State Fair this summer. They’ll be set up in AG-Land on August 18.
