Bondage Hood How-To

Here is a step-by-step process for making leather hoods that can be used with the open-faced and mouth-only patterns I posted here. These are perfect for a soft, stretchy lamb leather - and you can get a couple of hoods out of a 10 to 12 square-foot hide.

1. Refine pattern and edit for size if necessary.

2. Mark hide for defects to avoid when laying out pattern.

3. Layout pattern pieces, use weight and transfer shapes with colored pencil.
Parts list: Front panels x2, rear panels x2, large tongue, small tongue.
3. Cut out all parts.
4. Clip & sew front panel seam, top of rear panels.

5. Cut & fold down any access openings (optional). Clip, glue & fold down seam allowances: front, top of rear....
...and rear opening.
Open-face seam glued & turned in.
Detail of inside mouth opening.
Rear opening glued & folded.
Topstitch openings.

6. Set & tape small and large tongues in place.
6a. Topstitch tongues using width guide - leaving room for grommets.
7. Remove tape and trim excess from rear tongues.
8. Clip front to rear panels, aligning on center seam.
9. Sew front panels to back.
10. Remove clips, trim...
...glue, fold & flatten seam.

11. Re-draw bottom seam if necessary.
12. Trim seam allowance to prepare for folding (or trimming if doing a rolled-edge).
13. Glue, fold & flatten bottom edge seam. Trim tongue pieces if necessary to make room for rolled edge.

14. Topstitch folded edge. Be careful not to sew through tongues.


15. Mark position for grommet holes 1" apart with tape measure.
16. Punch holes - go slightly undersize for softer leather.
Punch nose holes too, if necessary.
17. Set grommets with washers. Size #0 on the left, #00 on the right.
18. Cut lace to length and lace through holes.

19. Lace hood on form & allow to stretch overnight (optional).

19a. Admire your handiwork...(optional).
20. Paint nose grommets matching red (optional).

Sewing breast openings on a Butterfly straitjacket

I just finished up a test butterfly straitjacket with a lighter-weight (2-2.5 oz) leather called E-18 from the Hide House. It's a variation on their explore hide (which is 2.5-3 oz). I was curious to see how the jacket would come out with a lighter-weight leather, although I was a bit worried about strength and durability. The cool thing about this particular hide is its almost ironed-smooth finish, tight grain, and silky soft feel...

I figured this would be a good opportunity to show you the steps I take to make the rolled-edge seam along the round breast opening.

The first step is the most daunting: you have to cut round holes in a perfectly good butterfly jacket. Positioning is crucial, and I try to center the nipple in the opening. Another thing to keep in mind: the hole gets larger after you sew the turned edge around it. I cut an 3-inch opening, and after the rolled-edge seam is sewn in place the opening measures a little more than 3.5 inches across.

Once the hole is cut, I sew the 1.75-inch strips around the opening, overlapping slightly at the bottom of the opening. Wherever you begin stitching, that will be where the exposed beginning of the seam will rest. I try to stay a little more than 1/8" from the edge of the opening, and feed the strip while turning the jacket under the needle. I tried using clips to hold the strip in place initially, but find it easier to just feed the strip manually as I go.

Once you complete the circle, you actually want to overlap a little bit to complete the edge.

Next, trim off the excess length.

Apply glue to the outside...

...and inside around the opening.

I kind of skipped ahead here on the pictures, but after the glue sets up, you carefully fold the strip from front to back, cutting relief notches as necessary to make the strip take the shape of the circular opening. When you are happy with the way it looks, topstitch around the opening from the front side to lock the rolled edge in place.

Once that stitching is done, trim any excess from the strip inside.

The jury is still out on whether this weight leather will do the job, but for now I have some testing to do...

Head Case: Painting veg-tanned leather

So, for my latest experiment in head-shaped leather casing I wanted to try out some unique color. With vegetable-tanned leather, if you want anything other than the light-tan look of the raw leather, you have to dye or paint it yourself.

The image below shows a bunch of colors that I bought at Sav-Mor, being tested on some scraps. The top strip has acrylic-based black and three different shades of blue. The next strip has black, red and blue on top of a pewter color - I was playing around with layering colors over the metallics. Next strip: red, green and yellow, and below that a long test with a colorless saddle oil (like what you'd use on a baseball glove), next to a light and medium-brown stain (they look almost the same to me!), light and dark-brown acrylic, and metallic copper, metallic bronze, and pewter. The metallics looked really cool, but I was afraid it might turn the hood into more of a robot-looking thing...

I finally decided on the acrylic-based light brown, as I really liked the look of the veg-tanned leather when it was wet, and that color came pretty close. I also wanted a kind of antique, slightly distressed look.

Because I planned to dilute the color, and that meant the hood would get wet again, I wanted to leave it on the form to make sure it kept its shape. I used a damp rag, and kept applying and wiping off the paint, until I built up a kind of patina. If I wanted the whole thing to be a consistent color, I would mix a batch first, and apply it without diluting.
I liked the idea of the seams being a slightly darker color, so I hit them with the brown stain, which absorbed well into the loose fibers of the edge. I had already slicked them down first with gum traganth.
I don't consider this a finished piece by any means, but a fruitful experiment nonetheless...
There are some construction issues and techniques that I can refine for next time, and for now the end result is so inspiring I can't wait to do a few more...
The color options alone are enough to keep me busy for a while... My fit model requested one in a dark metallic midnight blue. Sounds awesome to me.