Project Hoodening II

A hood commission for a friend. Made from MJ Trends 0.5mm Metallic Purple Latex (with a little hot pink inside the ears).

It took me a LONG, LONG time to make this, because I've never done anything like it before. I had to make the pattern entirely from scratch and in order to make the fit as god as possible, there are 27 individual pieces just in the basic hood design. This is not counting all of the extras such as straps, buckles, ears, hair tubes, etc.

One of the design challenges was to create a way to allow copious amounts of hair to be 'easily' put through the hair tubes in order to facilitate faster, and less painful donning and removing of the hood. This was accomplished by the addition of a hybrid closure in the back. There is an opening in the back that goes from the neck to the crown of the head, then T's off to either side ending inside the hair tubes, which are cut open on that side and open up all the way, allowing them to simply be wrapped around the wearer's hair, then buckled closed to keep it in place. I made a courtesy flap to cover the wearer's hair on the back of their head, then this vertical slit is laced closed over the flap, after the hair has been buckled into the tubes. Lastly, after the opening is laced up tightly, an outer flap is zipped closed with two zip-apart zippers, one on either side. This completely covers the lacing and the rest of the enclosure system to make the look much more seamless overall.

There are a few optional extras installed as well, such as the cat ears, and a pair of snaps at each temple that allow the quick addition or removal of a custom blindfold (two layers of .5 purple latex, with reinforcing on the edges to keep it in place). When the blindfold isn't in place, a pair of small latex tabs can be snapped in place and used to support the wearer's eyeglasses to help support longer term wear.

Overall I am very proud of this piece, and I hope it is well liked by it's commissioner, and the couple of minor issues that remain after so long are as minor as they can be.

If anyone else would like one of these made, I did build patterns in order to facilitate much faster build times going forward. One of these hoods will only set you back around $500US, give or take depending upon options.