OhGawdFeathers: Enter the Schlappen

I get to have a goofy title for this entry because quite frankly, this is all nuts.

I received my feathers this past weekend, a great big plastic bag full of them. I popped it open to inspect my new fuzzies, and found them to be much whiter and les speckled than I had expected. I almost wish I had mixed in some of the darker colored, more tawny varieties, but I am not upset at all with the creamier ones I got. I also noticed that the schlappen is a bit shorter than I had hoped – closer to the 6″ width rather than the 8″ as noted, but I have a plan for getting the most “bang for my buck” and blending the feathers upward to the empire waist.

The feathers are already strung together, in short sections about a yard long. Four or five rows of heavy-duty stitching hold the quills tightly in placed, and in all the unloading of the strips I only lost one tiny feather in the lots of them.

Here you see them layed out on the couch, on top of a pillow. Much sticky-rolling commenced after packing the feathers away…they are shedding bits of this and that, but a good shake should have it all out.

The tawny-colored bleached goose feathers add just the perfect amount of gold. I am so happy with how this all looks together! I suspect the goose feathers to be way too large, so I plan to prune them down and “split” them up to make multiple bits of feathers of smaller sizes to help blend into the skirt. The best of the goose feathers, as well as the real owl feathers, will be save for the head dress.

To keep all this plumage safe until it is needed, I put it all in a low, long box used for under-bed storage, and there they shall remain, safe from roving puppies, until it is time to start stitching them on.