Technique Tuesday: Rope Corsetry

So - I have this thing about rope.  It's hot, I like how it feels, I like how it smells, and I like playing with it.  Now playing with it can come in lots of flavors, just working it in my hands, tying knots, tying practice knots around myself, and tying knots around people.  I prefer the tying knots around people as much as possible, but sometimes that just isn't practical.

I'm not an expert, not by a long shot - I couldn't tell you the different between two different kinds of knots other than to say 'Hey I can tie that, its cool' and 'wtf, how did you do that?'.  Usually when I ask the second question I get a demonstration, usually once I tie a knot myself a few times it sticks in my brain and I can use it when I need to.

Where does my love of rope stem from?  I love working with my hands.  My girl usually giggles when I say stuff like that and tells me I have 'magic' in my hands, or some other such thing.  It's cute, and she's adorable - and its the truth.  There is just some kind of satisfaction I get after having put something together with my hands, when I can step back and admire my 'work'.  I dunno how to describe it, it isn't solely satisfaction, part of it is 'this is my art' and part of it might be 'thats my girl all tied up'.  However you slice it - I just like doing it.  I even like just sitting around trying to get a cuff knotted properly around her ankle that I've been working on for a while.

Anyway - onto the actual subject of the post.

I had been looking at some breast bondage, different kinds of halters and harnesses and I found one that I really liked (by TKB I think).  It was designed to immobilize the arms behind the back in addition to being a halter, but I figured I could skip that and modify it a bit to get what I wanted out of it.

Best part? - the breasts

We have a play party coming up this weekend, and I got the idea that for 'fetish' wear I could tie a rope corset on my slave and she'd be all set to go.  Never having done a corset before I did some looking online for the right kind of design - I found a few that had a 'quick release' built into them, but that required shoving a knitting needle through the knots and I just didn't like the overall look of it.  Since I was planning to have her wearing it long term, comfort, as well as aesthetics were important.  If she needed a quick release, wearing it out of the house was probably a bad plan anyway.

Just as an aside - we've done this kind of intricate bondage before and she's worn it for extended periods so I'm less concerned about her 'freaking out' while tied up and me having to cut her out of it.  If you're just getting started in this that's something you have to watch for, keep a pair of heavy scissors handy and don't be afraid to 'waste' all that rope chopping her out of it if things start to go badly.  Safety is more important than your kink (Unless Safety is your kink, then you're all good).

So - I actually discovered that corsets were pretty easy.  Once you get a harness in place (it can be any harness) you just loop through your byte and start wrapping.  Each wrap loops through the last 'byte' and you get a nice crisscross pattern all down the front.  In the back you have a clean smooth rope line.  Fantastic.  So we went to the store and bought about mmm, 250ft of rope.  Not fancy rope, since we're kind of broke at the moment, but twisted nylon and some clothesline (3/8 inch).  I liked the look of the 3/8 on her, I had considered the 1/2inch as well, but I wanted to get more wraps in and they didn't have enough rope in the 1/2inch size anyway.

rear view of the harness knots

After a bit of review of the process I started on the breast harness.  She loves having her breasts cinched up, so this part went pretty smoothly.  I was a bit anxious though and had her spinning around right after dinner, so she got a little nauseous and we had to take a break.  Tip: Be a good Dom and don't spin her around like a top on a full stomach.

The harness went on nicely though, and her first comment? 'Wow, look at my breasts!'  Definitely a boob lifter, one of the bonuses of having a well endowed girl who's into rope bondage.  I used to have a lot of problem at this point doing the 'over-the-shoulder' rigging, either it would irritate her neck (especially long term) or strangle her, or both.  I discovered a 'double coin knot' that could be used in this instance to put the pressure in another location rather than directly on the body.  One of these behind the shoulders and one at the base of the throat seemed to properly distribute the tension, and we were in business.

Closeup of the corset knotting

When the harness was finished the next part went pretty smoothly.  I did some walking around her, she did some lifting her arms up and down.  When I'm doing this for real I'll pay more attention to centering the knots, but this was just practice so my 'braid' went kind of crooked

The finished product was impressive - if I do say so myself (and I do).  A few times she had gasped and was commenting on how constrictive it felt, I was being careful not to cinch it too tightly (something to watch for!) I wasn't pulling on the ends, I was just snugging it all together - so I imagine if I really wanted to give her a trip I could have snugged everything up a bit tighter.  We might try that another day at home just to see what the effect is like.

I let her sit around in the rope for the rest of the night, she enjoys the feeling and I enjoy seeing her tied up - win win.  Even with all her movement it stayed in place quite well - my knot did slip, so I'm going to find a different way to tie it off before the party.  That won't take long though - and it was almost as fun taking it back off of her, as it was putting it on.  Got a great picture of the rope marks it left behind too.