Gum Wrapper Prom dress

Did you hear about the Junior high school girl who made her prom dress (well, the corset part of it anyways) out of hundreds if not thousands of Gum Wrappers? And not just any gum: Wriggley 5 – for the colour of its wrappers. Now that is what I call DIY fashion!

Elizabeth Rasmuson's Gum Wrapper Prom Dress

Elizabeth Rasmuson of Garner, Iowa, got the idea when she heard hearsay of another DIY fashionista who had made her Prom attire out of Duct Tape. Liz got her friends involded too; she bought the gum, distributed the pieces around and gathered the wrappers. Since such a project requires planning, she started right at the beginning of the school year. And so her date wouldn’t feel out of place (or clash, which would be worse), she made him a matching vest.

Elizabeth Rasmuson and her Date

The technique for weaving wrappers is fairly easy and it can be applied to other materials such as magazines and chip bags. All you need is to cut pieces measuring 2” by 4 ½”, fold them a certain way and begin weaving.

I found this a blog on the subject, Wrapper Purses - Made completely from recycled potato chip wrappers. There is even a tutorial to make a hand bag from woven chip bag and I have to say, I am loving this idea. Finally, something I can do to recdycle my weekly bag of Lay’s!

But back to the Gum wrapper dress, I looked into it and a pack of Wriggley 5 contains 15 pieces and costs 1.26$ CAD before taxes: that means to get 1000 wrappers, it cost her 84$ (CAD), not including dentist fees for cavities and jaw problems developped from chewing all that gum. Not bad for such an original bodice; plus, she made it to Tele!