Teen pours heart into coffee filter prom dress

UNDATED - She's known as "the girl with a coffee cup." Aimee Kick, who spends lots of time in coffee shops, took her moniker to the limit, crafting an elaborate senior prom dress out of coffee filters.

The senior at Missouri's Francis Howell North High School says she wanted to wear something creative that wasn't fabric. Because she wanted to dance and be comfortable at the prom, she eliminated the idea of making her dress out of vegetables, tea bags, stamps, bubble wrap or aluminum foil.

"When I really started to notice how into making the dress I got was the day before a large (and tedious) research paper was due, I kept saying to myself, 'Just finish the paper and then you can work on the dress as much as you want,'" Kick says.

Kick, who's taking three AP classes, an online class and working part time, spent about a month on her gown.

She had to fold and cut the coffee filters, as well as stain, dye, sew and blow dry them.

Some days she worked at it for six hours.

"Each and every filter is sewn onto a fabric base that I made," she says in an article posted on the school system's Web site.

"Most filters have multiple seams over them, save for the bodice, which was all hand sewn."

She calls making the dress a "stimulating challenge."

Others might find it to be a full percolated project.

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