Fitted for a Straight Jacket?

Yesterday, I was chomping at the bit, eager to get to grips with Fitted Mesh, and even though I said briefly that I wasnt going to start farting around with this until something was in RC, I decided... stupidly... to start farting around with it.

My process of learning is a fairly straight forward method - I sit down, research a subject, play around and test for time, and slowly I get to grips with how something is supposed to work.
I dont have a tutor, I dont have people to help me. And honestly, this has served me well over the years. Learn from example and its fair to say while I am not a guru on Mesh and rigged mesh, I know enough to be compentant over how it works and how to get things to behave themselves.

So... surely Fitted Mesh should just be learning a new series of tools and workflows based on what came in the original Rigged Mesh.

I will quote from the Second Life Wiki on Fitted Mesh.

"What is Fitted Mesh?
Fitted Mesh is a technique in which an avatar's collision bones are used to add further deformation detail to an avatar or clothing. The benefit of this technique is that it allows Mesh Clothing and avatars to be adjusted using an avatar's Body Shape sliders in the Appearance Editor. This results in clothing that can adjust and fit to your avatar's own personal body shape and style.
For content creators, the key difference between a Fitted Mesh skeleton and the previous standard skeleton is that a Fitted Mesh skeleton has more bones. The rigging workflow is the same except that the additional collision bones are also included in the skinning/binding process. Note that unlike the mBones, you do not need to include all of the collision bones, rather only the ones you wish to use."

That is a straight forward introduction there. The one key phrase included should answer my question about learning the new tools.
"The rigging workflow is the same except that the additional collision bones are also included in the skinning/binding process."

 Also included on the page is a download ZIP which includes relevant files to use as examples.

When you are learning, information is key to what you are doing and its fair to say correct information, not half arsed, half baked information.

So what other information can be found in this page?
1/ A list of the Collision bones... literately, thats it.
2/ Rigging using the Fitted Mesh technique - all this contains is a copy / paste job on how to upload a rigged mesh, with a few words changed.
3/ Additional Resources - a list of links to stuff not actually directly related to Fitted Mesh.

What's the definition of half arsed again?
This page has two potentially useful pieces on it. The first is the downloadable file which should be a accuate guide to the weights and how to create weighted mesh correct for Fitted. The second is that the workflow is almost the same but with more bones.

At this point you take your available information, and move to the playing around stage. Often I call this "hitting something with a big hammer until it works.

First job - grab a standard boot from my inventory, copy the weight values from the Linden Labs mesh to the boot - check the weights over... upload.

The boot I was trying to replicate was one of my Vipers but with Fitted weighting - they should look like this

And this is what happens when you apply fitted Mesh weighting

Not so much a boot, but a Number 7 Iron.
From what I can see, the mesh has collapsed in on itself and is warping out of shape.
I then experimented with it, to try and find out what I was doing wrong, and doubled the weighting up adding in both collsion and mbones and got this result

Okay... I've got nothing. I followed the work flow for rigging with the extra bones, and unless you are a stick insect, that doesnt work.

So, whats the problem? If you fail, its best to check the source of the information - go back to basics before you move on.
And as basic as it is, the original file is the one that should provide the information required for the meshes above, so its worth checking that out before you move on.

Using Blender 2.69 - latest model, you open the original, unaltered Blender file from Linden Labs, select the mesh, and export. Upload is via the experimental Fitted Viewer.
The expected result should in world, be what you see in Blender.
This is actually the result

On the left, is the standard SL body as uploaded and rezzed out in world (unrigged because its rezzed).
On the right, is the same mesh, but worn and instantly, you can see there are serious problems with the mesh effectively collapsing in on itself.
In fact I could almost theorise, the mesh isnt collapsing, but is fitting itself not to SL body, but the skeleton itself.

Now, either I am missing something so blantantly obvious its silly.
Or with their usual flair, the two useful pieces of information in the desert of their Fitted Mesh page and incorrect and broken! The Blender (and Collada file too - I tested that as well) as both acting up in the most terrible way, and / or the Workflow isnt the same as rigged mesh.

Needless to say, as usual when it comes to these things I have wasted a whole day.

Next in line for the Straight Jacket please...

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Addendum
I was just musing while cleaning up the house and doing my dishes why the mesh seemed to be collapsing effectively to the skeleton, and I couldnt work it out until I had a vague thought that perhaps my working methodology workflow was wrong.
The issue I had coming to mind, was what I said earlier - the mesh seemed to be rigging to the skeleton, rahter than looking as it should. I have a vague theory that rather than following the workflow used to rig with (new mesh & Prerigged mesh > Bone Weight copy one to other > select new mesh and skeleton > Parent), that I should be for some reason making the base file as the parent to the new object - in other words the SL avatar base.
I honestly dont have a clue what the answer is. I guess I will just have to wait and pray that someone out there will be good enough to share this, as I dont expect such kindness from Linden Labs.