Padded Sensory Deprivation Hood - Beauty Pix

Padded Sensory Deprivation Hood - PART III

The initial idea for this hood was to have breathing tubes, but after experimenting with a mock-up of the foam and leather sandwich layers, the best option turned out to be using a plain old #00 grommet. 

I couldn't find a sleek, low-profile way to have the tube secure on both sides. Maybe in future designs I'll figure out a way to make this work, but for now I'm stumped. 

 One more element to add: a rear lacing tongue to keep the hair out of the laces. 

 I used double-sided tape to hold the tongue in position, and stitched it using the post-bed machine with roller foot. 

 I wouldn't recommend doing the tongue sewing after the grommets were set, but in this case the hood is a prototype. The only way to create a pattern is to actually make the thing, making notes and changes along the way. Once the pattern is proofed, it will be easier to set the grommets after sewing the tongue. 

So finally we have the finished hood. And just in time for Christmas! 

Padded Sensory Deprivation Hood - PART II

So, now that we have our pattern we can get started... First the inner hood, which I'm making in a Japanese plonge leather. It's thin (0.5mm) and soft, with a velvety suede texture on the back side. 

 The weird part is I'm making this layer inside-out. I want the smooth shiny surface on the outside, but I don't want any seams on the inside. So the shiny side is where I'm marking and sewing this hood (the opposite of what I'd usually do). 

 I place this sewn plonge inner hood on the form…

 …and glue down all the seams. 

 Next I trace and cut (using my modified pattern) the foam parts. 

 This is half-inch thick foam...

 The outer hood is made of a lamb-tan cowhide (Lamba from Sav-Mor) which is about 1.2mm thick. Very soft, and with a shiny outer surface. 

 I use spray adhesive to glue the foam layer parts to the inner hood. 

 Here you can see the gap for the rear lacing: 

 Once I've sewn the outer layer, I put it on the form inside out, just to check and see how everything is fitting. 

 Looks really nice. I want it to be nice and snug, but not too tight anywhere. 

 I end up gluing a layer of leather into the neck to stiffen it up a bit, and give it a little more structure. 

 I do another test fit, this time right-side out. 

 Everything looks okay... so it's time to glue the outer layer in place. 

 I don't want the chin to slip out of alignment, so I peel the outer layer (like a banana) and apply spray adhesive. 

I fold it back and sew along the neck seam using the post-bed, locking the foam in place. 

 I next fold and clip the rear opening, which is then topstitched along the edge. 

 The neck area of the inner and outer hoods are glued then pressed together. The bottom edge of the collar is then folded up and sewn. 

Now the two hoods are completely locked together. 

 I put it back on the form and lace the hood up to help pull everything together. 

 I want the leather to take shape and rest overnight. 

 Just a couple more finishing touches, and this one is complete! 

Padded Sensory Deprivation Hood - PART I

This week's project: a padded, 2-layer sensory deprivation hood. This is a male version of the hood I attached to the butterfly jacket (project seen here), and I'll take you through all the steps along the way of making this one. 

We begin with my wood head form, already dressed in a tight fitting leather hood. I'll be using the same pattern for the inner hood, only slightly modified for the different rear opening. The first thing I want to do is create a pattern for the foam layer, and for that we need a wrap. 

The hooded form gets wrapped with pallet wrap. 

 I use this trick to make it easy to release the wrap: Get some painter's tape and a length of string. 

 Put the string on the tape, and use that to make a sort of rip-cord to help remove the wrap when we're done. 

 I align this tape/string along the rear centerline. 

 And make sure to leave enough string at either end to grab onto. 

 Now we can go to town on the duct-tape wrap. 

 Piece by piece, we slowly build up the duct-tape coverage. 

 Until we have everything nicely encapsulated. 

 Draw on the seam lines with a Sharpie. 

 I try to find clean lines along the break of the plane - I try to keep in mind how the leather is going to wrap around this curved form. 

 Once I'm happy with the wrap and seam placement…

 I pull the string ends to release the wrap. 

 Plastic wrap keeps anything from sticking. 

 And now we've got a shape for our foam inner layer. 

 These get trimmed out along the seam line. 

 And I use the shapes to create a paper pattern. 

 The paper pattern is used to mark the shapes on 1/2" foam. 

 And these are cut out. 

 The foam shapes are placed back on the hooded head form, and held with another layer of pallet wrap. 

 I made some modifications to the foam pattern at this point based on the fit of the foam panels. Added a bit along the top edge of the side panels, and at the chin too. 

 This foam layer now gets another wrap job: this time for the pattern that will become the outside of the hood. 

 Same build-up of layers as the first wrap: 

 Little by little, until the shape is completely covered. 

 Once wrapped, seam lines are again drawn on the outer shell. 

 I wanted the lines of the outer layer to match the seams of the inner foam layer. 

 Once happy, the outer layer is cut away along the rear opening seam. 

 We have a nice looking outer hood with the foam panels tucked inside. 

 I actually tried it on at this point, and could tell the shape was pretty much spot on based on the quick test fit. 

 So we end up with our foam pattern, our outer layer pattern:

 And our inner layer pattern: 

Next time: Ready to start building...