Candy Wrapper Garland

Simple chain crochet with candy wrappers makes a wonderful garland!

I have collected christmas chocolate wrappers for years. Just in case. Sometimes I wondered do I really need all of these for some reason and then it hit me yesterday. I need to crochet a garland with these! This is so easy, doesn't need much of anything, except the wrappers are the hard part, but I am going to ask all members of my family to save me the wrappers now on.

These are made with the plastic ones that have silvery back side. I'm pretty sure you can make this with anything that holds together, but this one has this lovely silvery sparkle!

This is going to my party supply box, not just christmas decoration, but more sustainable party supplies I'm putting together, because I am sick and tired of single use party decorations. And this is recycling in it's best!

Candy wrappers. I had years worth of them, about 4 pcs of 2 liter freezer bags stuffed kind of full. So alot. Alot and alot of candy wrappers. These are the plastic kind that has silvery back side.

Any kind of yarn you wish to use. I had hard cotton, known as kalastajalanka or kalalanka here in Finland. Widely used in old timey crafts. Didn't know how it translates. Fishing yarn? You want it to be tough, you need to crochet tight.

Crochet hook to match the yarn.

Alot of patience. And something to keep you entertained. Music maybe? And lots of coffee or tea!

Band-aid for your finger if your skin is sensitive. Wrappers scratch. Crocheting tight with heavy yarn is also hard to your finger.

You want to twist the wrappers to butterflies. You can do this for all of them before you start but it's mindnumbing. I twisted some, crocheted them away and then twisted some more. I just took hold of either side and twisted, it doesn't need to be precise. Just pinch the middle to make it easier to apply between yarn and hook.

I made a loop with 20 chain stitches in the beginning. And in the end when I was through. So to make hanging it easier. Not mandatory. Then I just started to crochet chain, every other stitch I put wrapper between the yarn and hook and then crocheted the chain stitch and between every wrapper stitch I crocheted one empty chain stitch. Just tighten the ones with the wrapper to secure them nicely, they keep in the crochet very impessively! No need to fight with it, just a simple hard pull will do. You have alot of stitches ahead.

My garland took 3 hours and is about 3 meters long so about an hour per meter. Including twisting the wrappers. Your experience may vary. I have no idea how much I had candy wrappers, but I have collected these for years. And will collect many more because this is just so wonderful that I need more!