cloth tests and older feather tests

I needed to find a way to gather fabric in an easy way. I know that I could have drawn a nurbs curve and then lofted it but I wondered if it was possible to gather ncloth in the same way that you gather fabric in real life; essentially drawing it together.

So I did experiments with a block that stretched using blendshapes and I found that it worked perfectly. I can then delete the type history so that I have solid drapery that I can place before turning it back into ncloth

I've experimented also with using point to surface constraints to attach the drapery to the model as well as to other fabric and they seem to stick pretty solidly

I tried placing the drapery the way that I wanted it on the model(sleeve, collar and body of the shirt) and I found that the seams were too thick(because of the gathering) so what I'm doing now is using a lattice deformer to compress the top and bottom (or what would be the seams) so that they are rather flat before I place them.

I also found some older feather tests with the dragon;