Do It Yourself Paper Dresses

Pattern for Dress One: Model Femke

Directions for Dress One: Model Femke

1. Print out all the panels belonging to Model Femke and enlarge each page by 333%.
2. Carefully cut them out along the dashed line.
3. Begin with the front panel of the bodice. Fold pleats as indicated and fix by stitching at mark. Close the darts by folding the indicated lines into each other. Finish by stitching them together.
4. Prepare the back panel of bodice by sewing upper and lower part together. Cut a slit at the indicated line.
5. To complete the construction of the bodice, lay the printed side of the back panel over the printed side of the front panel. Sew shoulders and left side along the seam lines. Turn bodice right side out
6. To make the skirt begin by stitching the two panels together on the left side. Fold the pleats as indicated and stitch to fix along indicated marks.
7. Pin the skirt to the bodice by matching the marks on each respective section. Sewing the seam on the interior side, fix the bodice to the skirt. After completion turn dress right side out.
8. To make the drawstrings, fold paper along the indicated lines and reinforce the length with a straight stitch. Finish the dress by attaching the drawstrings to the indicated cross marks on the right hand side of the skirt with a short stitch.

Buy the Large sheets of Paper to make this fabulous dress.

Staples calling all Specialty Paper Sellers, You Know Who You Are

Staples called this week. It got me to wondering about the world's largest office supply store and why they don't sell more of the Specialty Paper.

Paper.com is very good at selling Specialty Paper and we have about 40,000 types online.

Staples sells "Specialty Paper" too, about $300mm per year. However, Staples defines specialty paper a bit differently. They are referring to anything that is not white and 8 1/2 x 11 as specialty paper.

It is interesting to me that we all define specialty paper so differently. For Staples it represents about 300 papers. For Paper.com it represents about 40,000 papers.

In fact, for Paper.com the most bizarre and unusual papers are probably specialty papers. Edible papers. Waterproof papers. Earth friendly papers. Handmade papers. Therhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifmal papers. Carbonless papers. Paper made of plastic, like Tyvek papers or Yupo papers which are synthetic papers for watercolor projects.

How about textured papers? We have laid finish, linen finish, , rough, smooth and supersmooth. Exactly how smooth does a paper have to be to be supersmooth?

Or, we can consider inclusions. Paper is usually made by pulping cotton or wood into a pancake batter substance that is sprayed on a screen like you would find on a screen door, but finer. Water drips through the screen and the fibers of the wood or cotton line up and bond together naturally so that when its dry, its paper. During this process it is common to drop leaves, flowers, and other items into the paper during the drying process so that these items become part of the paper. Each sheet of paper is unique. Paper.com sells thousands of these unique, specialty papers, both by the sheet or by the pack.

Here is today's interesting specialty paper, Stone Cinnamon, an embossed paper:

The Souper Dress (Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup Paper Dress)

The Souper Dress Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup Paper Dress



So far there have been fourteen people who responded to this picture and most of you want to know where you can get a Souper Dress.

How much are they worth? Does anybody out there want to sell a Souper Dress?

There is one in Ebay right now with a Buy It Now price of $4000. Sounds like a bargain to us.

I see one sold recently in Ebay for $2250. Here is the description:

"This A-line dress is printed with the Campbell's Soup can label design. These dresses were inspired by Andy Warhol and were produced by Campbell's as an advertising campaign when paper dresses were popular in the 1960's. They were a mail-in offer.The label at the back of the neck has "THE SOUPER DRESS No cleaning-no washing It's carefree fire resistant unless washed or cleaned To refreshen, press lightly with warm iron 80% cellulose, 20% cotton". It has never been worn. It was unfolded to photograph. There is some slight yellow aging from vintage condition. There are no tears or rips that I can find. It has been packaged ever since I got it in 1968.

In March of 2007 a dress like this sold through Phillips de Pury for $19,000.00 and I have seen several sell on Ebay for over $3,000.00

Buyer pays $4.60 for shipping and I would suggest insurance which the price varies depending on the selling price. I prefer to be paid with cashiers check.

On Sep-17-07 at 12:00:42 PDT, seller added the following information:

I have added pictures to show the yellowing. The worst is on the back of the left shoulder and carries over to the front. There is also some on that back of the skirt."