It’s a Sun dress! Woman who made gown from 10,000 Starburst wrappers creates headline-grabbing outfit from Britain’s favourite newspaper
Artist Emily Seilhamer, 24, from Pennsylvania USA, spent over two weeks crafting the dress before taking to the streets in her new-s frock
AN ARTIST has created a headline-grabbing "Sun dress" out of Britain’s favourite newspaper.
Talented Emily Seilhamer, from Pennsylvania USA, spent two weeks crafting the headline-grabbing frock, shoes and hat.
The 24-year-old found viral fame after fashioning a stunning gown from 10,000 Starburst wrappers - a feat which took her five years.
She began saving them as they were her husband Malachi's favourite sweets and meticulously sewed them together to create the colourful gown.
But Emily said working with our paper was much easier than the fiddly, colourful wrappers.
"I knew it wouldn't take as long because the sections were already in whole pieces," she explained.
"I took me 20 hours of hands-on work – though with the drying time of the glue the whole process took two weeks, because after each layer I had to let it dry overnight before I could start working on it again.
"The hardest part was the hat! When I first started making it I didn’t have the rim big enough.
"I fought with that hat more than the dress.
"Getting the curve was tricky, because it’s such a large rectangular logo that getting that into the perfect shape for a dress was tough.
"I had to mould them and layer them up a bit to get them to look flat."
Self-taught Emily used a crafting glue, a bit like PVA, to toughen up the paper and prevent it from ripping as she shaped it around her mannequin.
The dress fastens at the back, with a hand-sewn zipper attached with invisible thread.
Speaking about how it felt to wear the finished product, Emily said: "It’s flexible, it feels kind of like a rubber.
"It’s obviously not super flexible like fabric, but it’s not stiff to the point where I couldn’t wear it – I walked all over Harrisburg in it!
"It’s not uncomfortable, though I wouldn’t sit in it for too long. And I definitely wouldn't wear it in the rain!"
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Emily certainly drew a few stares from passersby.
She recalled: "It was so funny, there was one little boy on a bicycle, he did a triple take - I thought he was going to crash!
"It looks like a dress, but they could tell there was something different. It was funny."
Having flicked through her copies before cutting them up to make the dress, Emily said she found The Sun "very entertaining".
Want to make your own Sun dress? Emily reveals how...
- Gather up your copies of The Sun and cut out the patterns, colours, words or shapes you want to use in your design. I cut out some specific articles with red in their pictures and all of paper’s red logos.
- Wrap a mannequin with plastic, such as cling film or cellophane, and, using decoupage or glue (I used matte ), cover it with a first layer of newspaper cut into different sized squares (not the patterns you first cut out). You want to cover the plastic wrap with the glue and add a coat of glue over the layer of paper as well. Don't be afraid of the paper wrinkling; it will not stay perfectly flat.
- Let it dry until the coat of glue is clear, then add a second layer of paper over the first. Let that dry, then repeat to create at least two to three layers.
- Using scissors, cut a line down from the top of the dress where you want the zipper to be and remove the dress from the mannequin. Remove the plastic wrap from the dress.
- The next step will depend on the person the dress is for. Get whoever it is to put it on and fit it to them. You may need to trim some off the back where you cut before, and cut the top part of the bodice into either a V neck or scoop neck.
- Put the fitted form back on the mannequin. If you want the skirt to be longer, add more paper and glue to increase the length. Details, such as straps, can be made by taking long thin strips twisted and covered in the glue. Once dry I braided three at a time before attaching the ends inside the form with a few squares, sealing the ends tucked inside.
- Once dry, fit one more time to the person wearing it. If it fits, take invisible thread and hand sew a zipper to the back, or even Velcro. Any type of fastener could likely be attached if it is sewn on by hand.
She added: "It was fun, I’d heard of The Sun before so I was a little familiar, but I hadn’t read one. I definitely enjoyed reading it!"
Since posting pictures of herself modelling the Starburst dress on Facebook, Emily has been inundated with compliments about her clever craftsmanship.
So much so, she's even transformed her hobby into a career.
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"I started thinking I could do this with other unconventional materials," she said.
";I ask people to collect things; I’ve done one with neck ties, and my grandmother’s wallpaper recently!
"They were selling the house so they took down the wallpaper, and I always thought it would make a nice Easter dress, so I wore it on Easter Sunday."
Last year we told how a teenager created a breathtaking wedding dress for £10 – but you’ll never guess what it’s made of.
To keep up with Emily's work, visit .