Does anyone want large quantities of white, slightly dusty feathers?

I'm in a performance group and one of our shows we finish with a pillow fight using slashed pillows. We end up with this:


So we have 25 pillow-fulls of feathers per show to get rid of. We're doing the show twice this week, another time in September and more after that so if you want lots of feathers, we can give them to you!  We pick the feathers off the floor so they are a bit dusty: they might not be suitable for putting back into pillows unless you can wash them.

We're based in Glasgow so I don't know if we could transport them to you if you're outside the UK.

If anyone could use some, please PM me.

I hate swimming costumes. I've been wearing shorts over my costume when outside, but it's too small anyway and I would get very funny looks if I did that in an actual pool.

But swimming costume that was bought secondhand five years ago + £2.50 new boys swimming shorts = nice new kit for me!

Before:


After:
 
Yay no stretch marks showing! No painful wedgie or digging in shoulder straps!

The sewing machine refused to work with the swimming costume so I folded the cut edge around a piece of swimwear elastic and attached it with three tiny hand stitches every inch.
For the shorts I took out the fake drawstring at the front, put in a real drawstring in the same colour as the swimming costume and put darts in the front because for some reason the shorts puffed out, as if they had been designed for someone with a full bum on the front of his legs!
   

I hate clothes shopping so a shop-bought Prom dress was always going to be more of a nightmare than a homemade one and luckily I have a very talented mother who did night classes in corset making a year or two ago. So she said she'd make me a corset.



She went to a sale of old costumes by the Scottish Ballet, not with my Prom outfit in mind but to study the way the costumes had been put together. While looking at tutus and strange formal coats with intricate, flexible fastenings she found a piece of silk at a very cheap price(for silk). So she bought it- while it is a much brighter colour than I would have chosen, the rich orange shot with black is gorgeous. And the label on it said something like 'first female soloist' so I'm wearing cloth that was the offcuts of a costume of a dancer!



The pattern is of a proper historical corset, though I can't remember what period it's from. (I can find out the name and manufacturer of the pattern if anyone is interested.) She first made a mock-up of the pattern from scrap fabric and then fitted it to me, adding in extra triangles for my womanly hips.  There are a lot of layers of cotton under that silk, to make it strong enough, as well as a lining. The bones are made of steel.



She also made the skirt and a vest to go under it (not the vest I'm wearing in the first photo, one of a spotted, less opaque black fabric). With the scraps we made a little bag and a rose with two black leaves to go in my hair.

The outfit was only finished late on the night before Prom, when she had to go to work in the morning. Typical. 

I'm very proud of the beautiful work she did, and grateful to her, so I thought I'd show you all.

I am trying to alter a pattern for stretch boxer shorts to make it fit. I made it in a cotton knit and have got it big enough now, but there are creases running in diagonal lines from the crotch upwards (tried to draw a picture in MS Word but that isn't the right file type to upload).

Where should I take in/ let out the pattern to get rid of the creases? I read somewhere that stress lines point towards the problem, does this mean I should let out the 'legs' where they join the crotch?

Oh and I'm a girl, my crotch doesn't stick out!   

I was bullied into taking Art last year and spent a lot of time working on it when I had other subjects to do as well (I work really slowly) so I want to show stuff off. It was for a Scottish Higher: You do two topics, Design and Expressive, with three A2 sheets of work for each. This is some of my Expressive- the theme was 'The Thief'. The first sheet is studies, the second compositions and the final sheet is a full size picture.

Oil pastel study of candlestick


Oil pastel study of eyes- they told me when I'd already stuck everything down that for portraiture you need a bit of face on every sheet!


White paint study of gloves. I kinda wish I'd left out the background on this this; it looked better beforehand.


Pencil study of keys


Coloured pencil study of necklace


Paint study of broken glass



Final Painting (it is a boy, honest)


Sorry for my rubbishness at taking photos and thanks for looking!

The (shop bought) bag I'd used for school for the past 4 years has had holes and broken zips for rather a long time, caused by it not being big enough. It wasn't a particularly nice colour anyway, so this summer I finally took it all apart and made another, bigger one using Angelbum's tutorial: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=154015.0.

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r141/musky_duck_puddle/068.jpg

I scavenged an inside zipped pocket and pencil holder bit, but replaced the ripped netting of the pocket with pretty fabric.

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r141/musky_duck_puddle/064.jpg

Didn't have enough fabric and lost the rest of my webbing so it doesn't match but I'm proud of the straps. There is a small elasticated strap across the chest.

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r141/musky_duck_puddle/067.jpg

And there are side pockets for a water bottle, with drainage holes because I got carried away.

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r141/musky_duck_puddle/066.jpg

There are areas that didn't work out that will probably fray, but I'm happy as it was my first time sewing in a zip and my first project done completely by machine. This bag is so big! I can put a jumper in, with my lunch and the folders and books for a whole day, and actually forget it's there as the bag isn't full! And my mother said I wouldn't be able to do it but I did, all by myself, and didn't permanently break the machine, so there!