Woman spends FIVE YEARS crafting a stunning dress and shoes out of more than 10,000 Starburst wrappers
Emily Seilhamer, 24, from Pennsylvania, had begun saving the wrappers as they were her husband's favourite sweets
A WOMAN has spent FIVE years crafting a stunning dress and shoes from more than 10,000 Starburst wrappers.
Emily Seilhamer, an artist from Pennsylvania, began saving the wrappers as they were her husband Malachi's favourite sweets.
The talented 24-year-old collected them for over four years before meticulously sewing them together to create the colourful frock.
Writing on her Facebook page, Artistry and Upcycling by Emily Seilhamer, she told how she and Malachi started dating when he offered her a pack of the sweets a few years before she started the project.
She told The Sun Online: "We met initially when we were 12 when we did a Christmas drama together.
"He started giving me wrappers back then as I told him I'd like to make something out of them, but we lost touch.
"Then right before we started college we met again and he started saving them again for me."
Once she'd saved enough wrappers, Emily organised them into colours, ironed them and folded them into links to make "candy wrapper chains".
She explained: "With the use of elastic thread, I was able to sew the links together into a 'fabric' to create the dress.
"The dress had a nice spot next to the gift table at our wedding almost two years ago!"
She told ABC News: "Funny thing is, I don't know how to sew.
"I know how to use a sewing machine, yet I've never actually learned how to follow a pattern. But I am a crafter so I if I can picture something in my head, I can usually figure it out.”
Asked by one fan if the dress was comfortable to wear, she said: "It's smooth like snake skin so yes... but heavy."
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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.
"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.
In June we reported how a teen was left in tears after her custom-made prom dress turned out to be a DISASTER – and her mum was furious.