F-suit for Vanilla Gallery - Patterns & Prototypes

Hope you all had a nice holiday and New Year's eve. I did, although most of my waking moments lately have been spent working on the f-suit I'm making for the upcoming Vanilla Gallery show with Karen Hsiao. The design is going to be a full-coverage f-suit with attached hood, and it's to be displayed suspended from a hook in the ceiling...

This is a cool project, as it gives me a chance to do something I've always wanted to do: A variation on the f-suit that pivots the leg position around, so it will function more like a hogtie. The poor slave inside will be pretty helpless and trapped in a belly-down position. I envision it actually being suspended with a person inside eventually, but that will have to be worked out at another time, and would require a separate reinforced harness. But for display purposes, D-rings sewn into the body of the f-suit should suffice. 

I am going to use a heavy red leather to reference back to the black cherries theme. I'll also need to come up with a new pattern for the zippered hood, as I think it will look cleaner than it would with laces at the back. I want a sleek, beautiful leather envelope...

So, first off, I need to create a pattern for the new leg pocket. I'll start like I normally do, with a duct-tape over plastic wrap.

 This usually gets another layer of tape, which helps smooth out the shape, and keeps the parts together as it is cut into pieces. I will then use a Sharpie to draw lines where I want the seams to be. Normally, I would create a wrap for both legs, and average out between the two pieces, but because this is such a strict position, I wanted to spare my fit model the ordeal of having both legs wrapped. Doing both limbs does give you an advantage in allowing you to adjust for any asymmetry in the body. 

 I love the look of a wrap when you can see the anatomical details, as here the clear separation between the upper and lower leg. The shape of the foot, too!

 Once I'm happy with the position of the marks, I'll cut along the best lines to get my pattern shapes.

I end up with large panels forming the left and right sides of the foot pocket. 

Another couple of panels form the front and back of the pelvic area. I'm planning on merging this design with my standard f-suit pattern. 

There is a center strip that runs from the top of the thigh to the tip of the toes, the bottom of the foot pocket, and a portion for the waist-through-the crotch. 

Each of these pieces gets transferred to the butcher paper that will become the working pattern. 

These get rough-cut into a big pile...

...and final trimmed to shape. 

Before I commit to making the pattern in leather, I want to do a test or proof of the pattern in an inexpensive vinyl first.

It's much better to discover any problems at this stage rather than after everything's been cut out of leather. 

Everything goes together like it will in leather, with clips and sewing. 

But I don't bother trying to glue down the seam allowances. First, because it's not necessary and second because it's near impossible to get the seams to stay down in the vinyl - at least with the contact cement. If you ever do want to glue down seams on vinyl, I'd recommend using a latex-based adhesive. 

That's about it for the pattern and vinyl fit test. If this checks out OK, I'll be ready to move on to making the final in leather...

Happy Holidays!

Better late than never? Hey, I've been busy! Hope you all had a merry Christmas, and lots of fun with friends and family. 

Laced Bondage Belt Step-by-Step

Today I'm going to take you through my process for making a heavy, wide laced bondage belt with d-ring attachment points. It's pretty much the same design I did for Straitjacketed.com a few weeks ago (as seen here and here), with slight tweaks to the shape of the panels. The one for SJ.com had curves, but this time I wanted to make the curves even more prominent and exaggerated. I'm hoping this gets used by Karen for her Black Cherries series, paired with a square armbinder and the recently completed pony hood. 

I did want to keep the 2 side d-rings (from the SJ.com version) and make the front a larger O-ring. 

Start off by tracing the patten onto the leather. This is a heavy black cowhide, about 3oz weight and 1.5 to 1.8mm thick. 

Clip and sew the panel sections together. 

Glue along the edge seams and seam allowances. 

Also, apply glue to your boning. In this case I'm using a Rigilene polyester boning - it's not the heaviest stuff, but it should work fine for this project. 

You want boning on either side of every seam and at the ends which will become the rear opening. 

Topstitch from the good side through the front, boning and seam allowance. 

Now I trim off the extra seam allowance on the top and bottom (along the green line in the above image). 

Next, we want to work on the lining. I usually have a supply of scraps from the neck or belly area of previously-used hides. These areas have more scars, defects and stretch marks generally, and therefore are better used in parts of your projects that won't be visible. I create an outline that is slightly larger than the workpiece, so I have room to adjust when the two parts are glued together. 

With the rough-cut complete, I'm ready to break out the glue. 

Apply glue to the rear of both the belt and the lining. 

Once the glue has set up, position the belt on the lining. Use a mallet all over to secure the two pieces together. 

Next, trim off the excess lining

At this point, I skive the edges to keep the rolled edge from becoming too thick. 

For the rolled edge, I cut two 1.75" wide strips long enough to extend beyond the top and bottom edges by an inch or so. These strips are about 28" long for this belt. 

Clip them in place with good side of the edge strip facing the good side of the belt, with 1" overlap. 

Sew along the edge, about 1/8 inch or so from the edge. 

Apply glue to the front and rear edges, about 1/8 inch beyond your stitch line on the inside. 

Trim, tuck and fold the rolled edge around from front to back. 

Topstitch along the rolled edge to keep it in place. 

Mark the spacing for your lacing holes, punch holes and set your grommets. 

On this design I stitch a tongue in place so you can't see skin through the lacing opening. 

We're now ready to attach the D-rings. I make my own hardware connections from 6-7oz vegetable tanned leather. I start by cutting 1.25" strips using a craft knife and a metal ruler. 

I use both a 1.5 inch and 1-inch punch to create the tab shape. 

First I use the 1.5-inch round-end punch to round the ends cutting the pieces to 2.625-inches in length. 

I use a little stitching groover tool to create a shadow line. 

When I'm making a bunch of small parts like this that I want to be the same, I usually will create a template out of posterboard - this one (the silver rectangle on the left below) will help me position the holes for all the parts in the correct position. 

After punching the holes, I use the 1-inch strap-end punch to create a curved "waist" on the sides of each piece. This will allow the d-ring to lay more flat than it would otherwise. 

I dip the pieces in water briefly to mold them into shape around the D-ring. It just takes a few seconds of submersion to make them a lot more pliable than they would be otherwise. 

The leather dye I use doesn't require the piece to be dry, so once they're formed I can start applying the dye right away. I usually do 3 coats, waiting about 10 minutes in between each coat. 

Once they dry, you buff them to a shine with a smooth cloth. Now they're ready to be attached. 

Position the D- and O-rings where you want them. Mark the locations with a pen through the holes...

And set the hardware in place with rivets. 

Now just lace her up, and she's ready to go!

Thanks for watching...