Need help with out of focus background

Hello,

I am brand new to photography and I am trying to take a picture of a small dress form for my girlfriend...she sells toddler clothes on ebay and I would like to create a picture to emphasize the the outfit on a dress form by completely blurring the background or as much as possible. I am using a Digital rebel XT 8MP with the standard lens. Is it possible to blur the background almost totally or would I need a different lens. The object I am taking a picture of is approximately 3 ft tall by 1 ft wide. Here is a picture i took with a canon a520 http://www.flickr.com …ext=set-72157594384683026 and this is what I am trying to do http://www.flickr.com …s/89985824@N00/​412755246/
so you have an idea of what I am trying to do. Any help would be great. Thanks

Can't see the first pic, says it's private. Zoom in and open your f-stop to it's widest possible setting, also it would help to move the dress as far away from the background as possible. With all that I'm still not sure that you would get the blur as seen in the second photo.

What Steve817 said plus set it against a very contrasting background, ideally one color (maybe a wall). That will make it easier to mask and, thus, change the background in PP.

Can't see the first pic either. The second one is taken with a much longer lens then you have.
Steve offers good advise. I'd make sure you use as 'quiet' a background as possible... (backdrop)

Point and Shoot cameras, such as yours, typically have a much larger depth of field than would an SLR. Translation, it's going to be very tough for you to get a lot of background blur (bokeh).

Steve's got it right in his first response -- use the largest aperture you can (smallest f/number), and get your subject as far away from the background as you can.

ibdb wrote in post #2843736
Point and Shoot cameras, such as yours, typically have a much larger depth of field than would an SLR. Translation, it's going to be very tough for you to get a lot of background blur (bokeh).

Steve's got it right in his first response -- use the largest aperture you can (smallest f/number), and get your subject as far away from the background as you can.

He's using a Digital Rebel XT - not exactly a point and shoot - it is a full fledged DSLR.

But the 2nd part is right - large aperture, move the subject further from the background.

Sorry - the shot he posted that everyone can't see was with the A520, so I wasn't entirely sure.

As they said, "Zoom in and open your f-stop to it's widest possible setting, also it would help to move the dress as far away from the background as possible." If that doesn't work, blur it with PSE ($50), or...
Think about a 70-200 f/4 for about $500 used.

sorry about the first pic not showing up, but i will try your advice of keeping the subject far away from the background and using a small f stop.