Serious Bondage Hood in heavy leather

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...

Male Butterfly straitjacket for Serious Bondage

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!

What is skiving, and how do I do it?

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...

London Rope Top

Sometimes you gotta say "WOW!". This guy's incredible. I came across this image a while ago on flickr:
...and thought that would be fun to try to make something similar in leather. Challenging, but what a concept. Kind of like the hogsack, but with a separate pocket for the arms and possibly hands too? Horny as all hell. I looked up one of the names tagged on the image (London Rope Top) and came across his tumblr site, which is chock full of completely bound horny fetish-wrapped gay boys. I couldn't find that exact image, but there are many similar, so I'm pretty sure it's him.

There's lots of rubber, leather, spandex, suspension and more - all expertly applied and nicely photographed. Definitely worth a visit... just not while you're at work!

More from London Rope Top's tumbler site here.

How to avoid the gap

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.

So awesome... Chinese mummification game show!

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.

3 Pervy Artists

Like everyone with a pulse and an internet connection these days I spend way too much time surfing around looking at pervy images and stuff. I try to avoid being a link list here on the blog, as there are many who do that way better than I ever will. But, just in case you haven't come across these yourself, I humbly present the sites of a few artists I think are doing incredible stuff.

First up is the prolific artist PSUKUA (no, I have no idea how you say it) who has so many creative fun ideas when it comes to full-enclosure bondage, he's a vertiable fountain of creative pervery. I love the imaginative scenarios he comes up with, from comic super-heroines in distress to ladies being coated in various viscous, semitransparent substances (with the appropriate "GLUB, GLUB, GLUB" sound-effects). He's got a wicked sense of humor, and you can just feel the glossy latexy-rubbery(?) whatever that substance is squeaking away as our helpless damsiel struggles hopelessly away.

How about some total-enclosure wall-suspension in chocolate? He's got that:

Oftentimes the slickery substance is animated, with a mind of it's own. Of course it's mind has one track - to entrap and enclose it's victim in orgasm-inducing envelopes of pleasurable restraint. I dig it!

His ideas for restraints are a lot of fun too. Although simply drawn, wouldn't it be cool to try and make one of these:

It would actually be a bitch, but he makes me want to try. Whatever he's on, I hope he continues to smoke, drink, and/or indulge in it, because he's so much fun to watch! Check out PSWKUA's blog here.

Next up, we have Shiniez, who has a lot of work posted on DeviantArt. My jaw dropped the first time I came across his work. He just has it all going on, hot girls, great anatomy, and excellent drawing chops. Not to mention his incredible coloring work, sexy scenarios and very nicely thought-out and detailed restraint and costume design. I'm pretty sure this guy is a comic-art pro of some sort who does these for fun on the side - he's just too polished to be just some guy with a wacom tablet. There must be some anatomy drawing classes somewhere in his past...

These don't just come across as drawings - he has a real ability to create a sense of presence and interaction between his girls... Love the sensual mood on this one: That's not easy, folks!

Love his expressions, his poses. They're damn sexy... Nice lighting effect, too.

Shiniez also creates designs that would be a lot of fun to try making in real life. Now if I could just find two volunteers for the one below... Just awesome work!

Last but not least we have these images from Peter Pool, who has an entire gallery of creative fashion pervery on flickr. He seems to work with found images, photoshopping them into creative bondage garments.
He annotates his work with descriptive marketing copy, as if coming direct from the Stayput®-Brand soft & cuddly restraint catalog. I just love it!
When I look through his stuff, I am blown away by the creativity, inventiveness and imagination at work. Who wouldn't want to cuddle up in one of these on a rainy Sunday afternoon?
He is working against the typical, shiny black or rubbery red with chrome hardware look. All the closures, zippers and buttons he uses are those that would appear on everyday street clothes and outer wear. Some of his designs feature hidden restraints - such as sleeves sewn into the pockets - so they could be worn in public without anyone knowing you were tied up.

There are so many ways to look at bondage, and his devices are playful, comfortable-looking and just plain snuggly. I could almost see these being sold on the home shopping network. It's just a step or two away from a snuggie.

I love the fact that the internet allows a mode of expression for these fantasies, and a way for the more obsure, unique fetishes like these to be shared... and possibly made real?

Visit Peter Pool's flickr site here.