So, with the recent project for Mark and friends at Serious Bondage complete, the only thing left was to take some nice photos so I have something to remember the project by before I send it off. Back when I asked Mark what size he wanted me to make these things, he just said "Make it fit you", so that is what I did. So that means I get to be the model as well. Oh, goody!BTW: Friends of mine who happen to check out my blog from time to time, if you don't want to see me tied up, look away now! Fair warning!!! As you can see from the pix below, the fit of the hood is quite nice. The wood hood form and stretch spray worked to create a nice 3-dimensional shape from my flat leather starting point. 
As I mentioned before, the darts at the chin really help the fit in that part of the hood. Ideally, the fewer seams the better, but those little darts make a big difference in the contour of that tricky-to-fit area - especially with this heavy-weight leather. It's a good trade-off. 
The one thing I do want to adjust for next time is the length of the side panels at the point where the seams meet at the base of the neck. I think it is just a little too long, and could be maybe 1/4-inch shorter. The front of the neck seems to be a perfect length though, and the nose-holes are perfectly positioned for easy breathing. 
Now, with the jacket:
The butterfly straitjacket is definitely a different sort of feel from a traditional straitjacket, in that your arms aren't closely wrapped and bound to your body, but rather trapped within the arm pocket with somewhat limited movement. With the zipper pulled up to the top of the high collar, I think it would be pretty difficult to get yourself out. 
I initially thought of this more as a female restraint, based on my concept of a male master "pinning down" a female partner. But for the male wearer, it is a rather frustrating and fun experience, one that keeps you from being able to do anything with your hands. 
Coupled with the hood, it is a pretty intense experience, and a great combination of enclosure and exposure, leaving you feeling quite vulnerable. I hope Mark and friends are happy with the end result...
Part 2 of my project for Mark at Serious Bondage is a matching leather hood. Once again, I won't go into exhaustive detail with the steps on this one, but give you just an overview instead. 
I'm developing a new male-hood pattern for use with heavier leathers.
There are 6 pieces to this hood, and for the first time with the male hood I'm using the small tongue pieces instead of the larger 1-piece tongue I have used in the past. This helps reduce bulk, which is even more important with the heavy leather. It also makes it possible to open the rear of the hood even wider when putting it on. 
For my heavy-leather hoods lately I've been using a split-chin design - a dart to help make a pocket for the chin. It really changes the fit, and makes the chin area fit nice and tight. 
Once the chin darts are sewn, they're glued...
...and flattened. Here's how they look from the outside:
Front face seam gets some glue...
Since we're using the same heavy leather as we did for the butterfly straitjacket, I wanted to use the hood form to help mold the leather into a shape that would conform to the head and fit very close. You can see the darkness at the forehead and lower jawline where I sprayed shoe-stretch formula onto the leather. This helps it stretch and take the shape of the hood form. 
At this stage, I have the rear panels sewn to the front, and am gluing the seam allowance on that connection. The hood form really comes in handy for this type of operation, where you are gluing 2 sides of a seam at once. 
Once that seam is flattened, and the rear lace holes punched, and grommets set - the hood is laced onto the hood form to dry out completely and rest overnight. 
This is my first try with this particular pattern, and I can see there are some little things that need adjusting - like the pucker at the top of the lacing panel at the top rear of the hood. 
But this is pretty good for a first try, and with a little tweaking this patten will be perfect. Well, at least as perfect as I can make it...
This past week's project has been a male butterfly straitjacket for my friend Mark at Serious Bondage and Serious Images. I had done one a while back (a 2-tone in gray and brown), but wasn't completely happy with the fit, and so I wanted to make some tweaks and refinements to the pattern.
I wanted to base the new pattern on the female butterfly straitjacket pattern I have been working from for almost 10 years, and most recently made in gray leather (shown below). It just fits so well, and I thought it could be adapted without too much trouble. 
The first step on a project like this is always the pattern. Whenever you make tweaks to an existing design, you have to make sure any changes to one part of the pattern are echoed in the other parts so it all fits together in the end. In this case, most elements were similar in shape - but I wanted to enlarge the arm pockets as well as the openings for the sleeves to make it a bit easier to get into the jacket. Of course, from the female to the male version, everything had to scale up as well. 
Here I have almost all the parts needed cut out: 4 arm pocket panels, 2 fronts, 2 backs, arm pocket sides and a collar. 
I won't cover every step here, as the construction of the butterfly straitjacket is something I talked about not too long ago... Here's just a few of the steps along the way. Body panels clipped:
Arm pockets clipped for sewing...
Arm pockets ready to be sewn to the body:
Arm openings glued and ready to be flattened:
Body together, ready for the seams at the collar and bottom edge:
One thing Mark mentioned was the need for a quality zipper. I had to custom order direct from YKK to get a solid brass heavy-weight #10 zipper with a black finish. These babies are tough, and beautiful, and with the minimum order, expensive. At least I have a bunch to use for future projects!
I've been experimenting lately with double-sided tape for holding zippers in place for sewing instead of the tape I usually use. It has good and bad points. If you position it right, it can be removed after you sew, although it still involves some careful peeling and picking. 
Even with the tape, I like to back it up with clips when I'm sewing the 2nd side of the zipper. 
My new technique for enclosing the zipper in the turned flap of the rolled edge is working out well. I really like having the zipper ends tucked in - it's both neater and stronger than having them on top of the rolled edge. 
The same idea at the collar end:
Completed rolled edge:
And the finished jacket:
This color, a dark, rich reddish brown is really beautiful. 
Next up: the hood!
First of all, it's pronounced SKIVE-ING, like "driving" and "diving". For the longest time, I thought it was skivving, like - well, I don't know what else sounds like skivving...
Anyway, skiving is the process of trimming the edge of a piece of leather to reduce its thickness. It's kind of a tapered cut, going from the full thickness of the leather to something less than the full thickness at the edge. It's a technique sometimes used to taper the edge of a turned seam, so it can be folded and finished without being too bulky.I usually skive the front seam on hoods that are made in any sort of heavier leather - as you are more likely to feel those edges on your face if they aren't tapered down. 
In order to do this, you either need an expensive machine like the one shown in action here, or a blade with a truly sharp edge. I don't have such a machine yet, so I tend to use razors, scalpels and (my personal favorite) surgical prep blades. They're the best to me for a couple of reasons: They are slightly longer than regular razors, so you have more blade to use before it dulls out, and they come out of the package sharper than any other type of razor I have tried. Here's a closeup of a raw seam edge: When I've seen people working with a skiving machine, they tend to skive before assembly. But for me it is easier to skive after the seam is joined, as I can control the cut better that way. 
The razor (did I mention it needs to be extremely sharp?) is guided at an angle along the seam allowance edge, cutting and tapering the thickness as it goes. It is surprising how quickly the leather wears down the blade - it is very abrasive stuff. But usually I can get through an entire project with one or two blades. Initially it will cut like a hot knife through butter, but you will gradually start to feel more drag as the blade dulls. 
When you are done, both sides of the seam should taper gently down in thickness so the inside feels smooth and almost seamless...
Something that used to annoy me when I started out making things out of leather was the tendency for a little gap to appear at the intersection where multiple seams came together. It was like a little hole, and it really bothered me, until I came up with a little fix. Here's a little drawing showing the problem: See the little black triangle? Unacceptable!
If you flip the workpiece over, you'll see the 2 panels on top meeting the third panel below, with their seam allowances folded down and topstitched. Part of the issue is that leather is not completely flat - it has a thickness. And when you fold that thick material, you are creating a little bit of space because it is impossible for the fold to lay completely flat. It seems to compound the problem when you have 3 or sometimes 4 panels coming together in one place. 
Let's back up to see where the problem is. Here we have the same 2 panels as before - sewn together, but not yet joined to the third panel. At this stage I would clip the seam allowance at a 45º angle before clipping and sewing the third piece. 
Leaving this kind of shape:
You can get an idea of the problem already. I now have to sew exactly on that seam line to keep the gap from showing up. And, as we know with leather things can stretch and move around while sewing, making precision alignment difficult at best. So my solution was the idea below: Clip one side of the seam allowance in line with the seam. Let the other seam allowance form a tab, which is folded over before sewing. 
Once folded over, I usually trim that little flap (see the dotted line below) so it doesn't create too much thickness at the seam. This method has worked really well for me, and the gaps have been officially banished - even with 4 panels coming together - it's been a simple and effective solution. 
How come we don't have game shows here in the US with mummified Asian hotties struggling through an obstacle course? I feel deprived!
Link to the complete YouTube video here.
The one thing I do want to adjust for next time is the length of the side panels at the point where the seams meet at the base of the neck. I think it is just a little too long, and could be maybe 1/4-inch shorter. The front of the neck seems to be a perfect length though, and the nose-holes are perfectly positioned for easy breathing. 
Now, with the jacket:
The butterfly straitjacket is definitely a different sort of feel from a traditional straitjacket, in that your arms aren't closely wrapped and bound to your body, but rather trapped within the arm pocket with somewhat limited movement. With the zipper pulled up to the top of the high collar, I think it would be pretty difficult to get yourself out. 
I initially thought of this more as a female restraint, based on my concept of a male master "pinning down" a female partner. But for the male wearer, it is a rather frustrating and fun experience, one that keeps you from being able to do anything with your hands. 
Coupled with the hood, it is a pretty intense experience, and a great combination of enclosure and exposure, leaving you feeling quite vulnerable. I hope Mark and friends are happy with the end result...
