Recycled Christmas Stars

I'm loving these RECYCLED Christmas Stars... and I just know I'll be making a squillion of them this Christmas Season.

Especially since all you need to make them is a plastic shopping bag and a tea bag string, plus a pair of scissors and a crochet hook.

Oh - and an iron and a couple of sheets of baking paper or brown paper bags.

So firstly, I cut the bags into plarn - which is plastic yarn - just one continuous length of plarn about 2.5 cm (1 inch) wide.

Then I crocheted the plastic into the stars using this pattern here. It's in German - but don't be deterred by that! There's a simple chart, and since there are only two rounds of crochet needed, the chart is very simple and easy to follow.

One thing I did different from the pattern: I didn't begin with a magic ring. I thought that tightening the ring would overstretch the plastic tail and BREAK it. So instead I worked a ch-4 loop at the beginning.

Because the stars were a bit soft and tended to curl in on themselves, I decided to iron them flat. Nothing fancy - I just popped the stars between two sheets of baking paper and held the iron over them until they started to melt a little. The iron was just on it's usual setting, which I think is the cotton one - not the highest setting, but one down from there.

Then I sat them flat while they cooled. 

The ironing process shrank the stars a little, and fused them. The plastic actually melted and the stitches stuck together. it created a thinner but stronger star - more suitable for hanging on the tree.

If you look closely at the photo above, you'll be able to see where the plastic has fused - especially around the centre hole.

Once they were cooled, I just threaded a tea bag string through one of the holes near the tip - and knotted the end to form a loop.

I'm thinking these will look brilliant on our tree this year!