"There are people who think you are plain weird, but you can't help that."

Lindsay Gossack has grown accustomed to getting odd glances when she wears her 4-H project dress. Its unconventional mating of an industrial material with a festive majorette-style cut is like something from a 1950's science fiction movie.

One of the questions she gets most often is, "Is that really duck tape?"

Yes. She fashioned her star spangled frock from the waterproof adhesive which first appeared in olive drab, keeping moisture out of military ammunition cases.

"It was part of my sewing project," said Gossack.

It didn't bother her that duck tape wasn't on the materials list in the project book.

"Technically, it's sewing and textiles," she clarified.

The 17-year-old from Great Falls got started when one of her high school teachers put on a duck tape Olympics. Since then, she has created shirts, vests, aprons, purses, sandals, wall hangings and a snazzy dress, among other things. Her favorite creation was a black duck tape vest decorated with an argyle pattern in red and white (you guessed it) duck tape. She likes using the bright new colors that the tape comes in, in addition to the classic silver color, famous for sealing heating ducts.

Starting in the 4th grade, Gossack "learned by doing" in Montana 4-H. Her eight-year membership in the Great Falls Gigglers club is an example of how the youth development program has branched out from its early days. Through 4-H projects, she tried her hand at sewing, cooking, knitting, embroidery, photography, teen leadership, cat, dog, sport fishing and cowboy poetry. Creating funky garb out of duck tape was just one more new challenge to add to the list.

Gossack read on the Web about how others had "sewn" with the tape, but she wanted to make her garments lighter weight, so she created a technique using tissue paper as facing. The process involves layering strips of the tape on a hard, smooth surface to create a fabric panel. Using an Exacto knife, she cuts out shapes. Then she uses tissue paper to cover the adhesive, except on the seam areas -- that's what sticks it all together.

When Gossack demonstrated her technique at the Cascade County 4-H Demonstration Day, she won a trip to Montana 4-H Congress at Montana State University in Bozeman. There, she was one of the public speaking finalists to win a trip to National 4-H Congress in Atlanta. Over Thanksgiving break, she'll take time off from her freshman year at Seattle University to meet and celebrate with other 4-H contest winners from across the nation.

"4-H is a wonderful experience," said Gossack, "I've gotten a lot out of it -- public speaking especially. You'd never guess that I was once a shy little girl… It's something that allows me to be unique."

As far as her relationship with duck tape goes, Gossack said she'll continue to create, and might even write a booklet about how to do it. But her fashions might best be saved for the runway. When she wore the dress for part of the day, it turned out to be too warm. And the shoes were a bit hard to walk in, she said.

She's first to admit that her experiments with adhesive attire haven't been without foibles.

"When I was making a purse for a friend, I still hadn't discovered how to use the tissue paper. I was trying to double-side the duck tape… I got this huge ball of duck tape and got my hand completely stuck in there."

It's sticky stuff.

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