Here's one suggestion. I'm sure there are others. My younger sisters made them just by wrapping yarn around the hanger and adding pom poms to the top.

Here is a link that might be useful: yarn hangers

My grandmother used to use rug yarn half hitched around a hanger. She used wire hangers, but I don't see why you couldn't use plastic, other that it would obviously take more yarn. She would start at the tip of the hook by taping the tail, then carefully make her first few half hitch knots. After that it was easy to keep them from sliding off the end. At the place where the hanger divides, she would just keep going along one side, and end at the other end of the divide. I can't remember exactly how she finished that end. I do remember her taking a couple of seperate pieces about 6-8 inches long and tieing a bow around the neck of the hanger.

You could probably use an acrylic chunky or bulky weight yarn now. I have no idea how much yarn she used per hanger. Probably 3 - 5 times the measurement of the hanger, which would probably depend on the thickness of the hanger. She would measure off how much she needed, I'm sure when she learned to do this that she was told how much she needed, then roll the length into a ball, which made it easy to make the knots. I hope I explained this so you can understand it. They are wonderful hangers! I still have a few. The clothes don't slide off.

My mom used to sometimes use crochet thread and single crochet a strip of 5 stitches however long it took to cover the length of the hanger, then whip stitch it over the hanger.

Tami

I did these in the past, but don't remember now how I did them!
There are some directions on www.thriftyfun.com - use Search to find.

I've got 3 different types of covered coathangers on my blog and website. Have a look and you might see what you are looking for. I get a lot of hits on my website for these hangers and I have taken the time to write a pdf file for the pattern of the braided one.

Here is a link that might be useful: covered coathangers

thank you everyone for all of your suggestions