- Choose a piece of cardboard that is a little bit bigger than you'd like your plastic shopping bag rug to be. This will form the base of the loom on which you will weave the rug. Find some very thick, sturdy ribbon at a craft store. Then, collect plastic grocery bags. Some stores offer them in various colors, which can add interest to your rug. You will need at least 20 bags per foot of rug.
- Starting from the top of the piece of cardboard, draw a small line every 1 1/2 inches along one edge. Do the same to the opposite edge. Cut out a rectangle of cardboard about the width and length of your thumb around each line. Your loom is complete.
- To thread the loom, simply wrap the ribbon around and around the cardboard, starting from the notches at one end of the loom and moving toward the others. When you get to the end, tie the beginning and end of the ribbon together diagonally across the back of the loom.
- Cut the handles off the shopping bags, and tie a few of them together. Tie the end of one of the bags around the ribbon on the top corner of the loom. Weave the row of bags over and under the ribbons. When you reach the end of the row, start the next row in the opposite direction and in the opposite pattern. Add more shopping bags as necessary.
- When you have filled the loom, tie the end of the last bag to the bottom ribbon. Then cut the ribbons from the loom, two at a time. Tie each pair of adjacent ribbons together tightly.
