Plouf

Because I am an adult in possession of exceptional forethought and planning skills, in April I went and got a complicated facial piercing, which means it looks like I have four little ball bearings on my eyebrow. 
 
I suspect this probably isn't okay for ioc trooping, and certainly not okay for named characters, so my question is, is there an acceptable cover up?
Will clear/flesh colour retainer caps pass, as they aren't easy to spot?
Or am I going to have to hold off entirely until I can pin down a way to get the metal out of my face?
 
(Not being deliberately awkward, since April I developed very slow wound healing due to a health condition, so at the moment the piercing still cannot be removed, only the caps changed. I'm also advised against removing it entirely until it's cleanly healed.
Obviously, I hope to reach the point it can simply be taken out for the day, but this could be 4-6 months, it could be never. Believe me when I say I'm less than thrilled.)

Hello fellow officers,
 
Several months ago, I sent a challenge to a fellow from the Spanish Garrison. If he dyed his beard of pink, I will let him to command the escort of Ambassador Droid R2-KT in the Spanish Garrison's Training Day.
 
Our Training Day was celebrated last wekend in Sevilla and... oh well, a pic is better than a thousand words...
 

 
He's ID-22967 and we will love to see our proud officer with ambassador droid R2-KT on IOC Facebook page if you find it appropiate. We fight against cancer!

I bought a pair of boots from this listing on ebay. The lining was faux leather and flaking badly (as old faux leather does) and the shafts were about 2" too tall. But the price was too good, so I decided I needed to modify them myself, I wanted to make a tutorial in case anyone else finds themselves in a similar situation. It's so difficult to find the perfect boots, I don't want the height of the shafts to stop anyone from affordable boots. 

You will need: 
fabric measuring tape
seam ripper
painters tape
REALLY sharp scissors (brand recommendation below)
sand paper
black leather dye (brand recommendation below)
plastic cup you don't care about
few q-tips
brick of wax (brand recommendation below)
leather slicker
waxed thread OR heavy duty thread
sewing needle (preferably on the long-ish side.
e6000
2 plastic or metal clips/clamps (clothespins will work too)

Optional:
lighter
leather dressing


Step One:
You need to take your measurements to find out how much needs to be cut off the boot. With your foot flat on the ground, measure from the bottom of your heel to roughly an inch below where your knee bends. Note - if the boot meets the area where your knee bends, or extends past it, it will prohibit you from walking. You do not want that to happen! With the measuring tape held in place, give your knee a bend to make sure it does not jab you in the back of the knee. If it does, re-take your measurement a little lower until you can bend your knee comfortably. 

Now, measure the back of the boot from the bottom of the heel (ABOVE THE SOLE) to the top ridge. 
Subtract your first measurement from the second and that should give you the amount that needs to be cut off the boot. 
For me, my leg measured 15.5" from heel to below the back of my knee, and my boot measured 17.5" so I needed to remove 2". 
Remember your number, you will need it in a couple steps! 

Step Two: 
Now you need to prepare your boot to be trimmed. Your dressage riding boot probably has a leather strip that runs along the back seam. We want to carefully preserve this strip, because we'll need it to go back into place after we have trimmed the boot. So, with your trusty seam-ripper in hand, carefully pick out the stitching at the top, and on either side. You only need to pick out the stitching an inch or so past your trim measurement. So for me, I picked out about 3" of stitching. 



Now you can carefully peel back the strip to reveal the seam of the boot. I have drawn an arrow to point out some creasing in the leather. This is pretty difficult to avoid, you do not want to pull the stitching too far down or it will be VERY difficult to re-stitch it later. I have a tip at the end for conditioning the leather to minimize the look of the creases and there are online tutorials for removing them completely. Just do your best not to bend the leather too harshly while you work! 


Here, you need to use your seam-ripper to break the threads at the top (marked with the X) and try your best to pull the threads out without breaking them. For this I used my nails, you could use a pen, pencil, toothpick, or any other small blunt-but-kind-of-pointy object to do this. You want to pull the thread out so you can tie it in a knot at the "x" I have marked.

Congratulations! You're now ready for the next step! 

Step Three:
It's time to mark where you need to cut! I did this with tape so if I made a mistake I could easily move it without scarring/marking the leather. I made a 2" paper strip to help guide me, if you make a strip like this, don't treat it as law. If your boots are like mine and curve at the top, you'll have to improvise a little with the curves, you can't follow the strip perfectly since it is straight. You can also use a seam gauge like this one, but I couldn't find mine at the moment! You will be cutting along the top of the tape.


The inside of the boot is the easiest place to start, as it has the least amount of curves. Use small bits of tape and take your time! 


This is the part where you're allowed to scream the whole time. For me, it was easiest to start with one piece in the front of the boot (since you should have tape nearby there from doing the other side), one piece in the back, and slowly go back-and-forth to connect them. Your tape does not need to be pretty or lay perfectly flat, it just needs to give you an idea of where to cut. 


After both boots are done it is VERY important to take a few moments to step back and admire them. (you probably did better on your second one just like I did!) Put them next to each-other and compare the lines. Stand them up side-by-side and make sure that they are even. Put one leg in one and look in a mirror to see if it looks right, then do the other leg. (one leg at a time because if they're too tall you can't walk in them!) This is your last chance to make any adjustments. Like if the front looks too low, add more tape to bring it up. Or if the curves on the boots don't match, you can fix them now!