It looked like a colorful cotton throw rug on the floor. Its hues of blue, white and other colors popped against the gray.

But it wasn’t cotton and it wasn’t a rug. It was hundreds of plastic bags transformed into a soft and squishy sleeping mat.

Louella McElhaney of Donegal Township first heard about making plastic shopping bags into sleeping mats in 2012 during a meeting about housing for the homeless in Butler. Intrigued, she researched the mats on the Internet.

Using plastic yarn, also known as “plarn,” she crocheted a mat.

“The first one I made completely on my own, start to finish,” McElhaney said. “That way I was able to show the people what a finished project was.”

Then she presented it as a potential ministry for her church, First United Methodist Church in Butler.

“The church loved the idea,” McElhaney said.

“It just took off. I have about 50 people on my team that contribute to this project,” she said. “To date we’ve made 118 mats.”

She said each mat rolls up like a bedroll for easy carrying and unrolls on the ground as a cushion and a barrier against the wet and cold. It doesn’t absorb moisture and it holds body heat. It is lightweight and easy to clean.

Catholic Charities in Butler receives most of the mats and distributes them according to need.

“The mats are more used from spring until winter starts because the warming center isn’t open,” McElhaney said. “It is a heartfelt ministry. It’s not a reward we see. It’s all through the grace of God who gets these mats.”

Each three-quarter-inch-thick mat starts with 800 to 1000 plastic bags cut into 2½-inch- wide loops. Volunteers make a chain of the loops and roll each chain into a large ball of plarn.

Crocheting the plarn into a 3-by-6-foot rectangle is the next step. A crocheted plarn carrying strap is added. Finally, a small wooden cross, made by a member of the church, is attached with a leather cord.

“This is his way of reaching out,” McElhaney said.

She said from start to finish, each mat takes about 50 hours.

Monica Huselton of Butler Township is on her 34th mat.

“I enjoy working with my hands, and it’s nice to know someone can use this,” Huselton said. “It’s going to keep them warm and keep them dry.”

She had not crocheted for many years when she started her first mat, but it wasn’t difficult to begin again with just the chain stitch and single crochet required.

“In an evening I can do about one foot,” she said.

“Everybody has to take it at their own pace,” McElhaney said. “Some people like Monica can do them quickly, some people are slower. It is not a race.”

Huselton introduced the project to fellow Master Gardeners, members of the Oak Hills Garden Club and others. They are collecting bags for the project, and some help make plarn. She said Jan Stirling-Kelly of Meridian, also a Master Gardener, even makes plarn during their meetings.

Volunteers stop by the Connection Center of First United Methodist Church, 232 E. North St., from 6 to 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month to drop off the finished balls of plarn and completed mats and to pick up more materials. They may spend some time making mats together, but the majority of the work is done at home.

McElhaney said crocheting skills are not necessary to get involved.

Charlotte Bupp of Butler Township, who started volunteering a few months ago, said, “It’s something different. I don’t have to think.”

“There’s a lot of people behind the scenes. It all starts with saving bags,” said Lynne Updegraff of Penn Township. “You can help a little or a lot.”

McElhaney said churches in other cities also make mats for the homeless. Butler volunteers on winter vacations also have inspired some churches in the South to take up scissors and crochet hooks for the cause.

Watching television with scissors in hand, Bob Schiebel of Butler has been cutting bags for plarn for four or five years. In an evening, he cuts up hundreds of bags and Carol Schiebel, his wife, chains the pieces together, alternating the colors.

She becomes surrounded by a mountain of chained plarn until he rolls it into a ball.

“I’ve made them as big as basketballs,” Bob Schiebel said. “If I make a good- sized one, that usually makes a mat.”

“Because of what it is, you want to do the best job you can,” Carol Schiebel said.

“Three to four nights a week we try to do this. It’s our contribution,” Bob Schiebel said. “This is something we enjoy and we can do at home and we’re helping people.”

“It almost looks like a Berber rug if you are looking from afar,” Carol Schiebel said.

“The finished product is amazing when you know it’s just a bunch of plastic bags tied together.”