Getting into a Straitjacket

How I get myself in to a Posey Straitjacket.

I guess most people who think about Straitjackets, think about how to get out, not in. If you are in to Straitjackets, but not in a Straitjacket, the problem becomes how to get in. If there is someone else to do it, this can be done quite quickly and effectively, but I usually play by myself, so it is up to me. First a few words of caution.

A Posey Straitjacket is not a toy in the usually sense of the word. If you don't know how to get out, don't put yourself in. It can take me twice as long to get out as to get in. I could certainly put the jacket on in an environment that I couldn't get out of it. My play space has lots of things I can rub up against.
Straitjackets can be deadly. If you get something around your neck wrong you can kill yourself. The Posey Straitjacket is fairly safe on this count. It is intended as an institutional restraint and has a wide neck opening.
Both getting in and out seems to be aerobic activity. Drink lots of water. I usually sweat through my clothes and the jacket in large patches before I am free. It also helps to be in good shape for this level of activity.
Plan for someone to come to your rescue if you don't re-appear. This is common sense for all self bondage play.

Now to go from safe to safe-and-secure.

I like to wear some clothes under the Jacket. This is optional. It helps prevents abrasions, bruising, absorbs some of the sweat, and for me is part of it being erotic. I like reversible PE shirts, jock straps, wrestling singlets, and military battle uniforms. We are quickly approaching the time where what I am wearing can't be changed. If I don't wear at least a short sleeve shirt I will get some marking under my arms.

If you are really doing this and not just reading along, you may want to program your speaker phone so that you can auto-dial someone about now.

I buckle up all of the straps except the arms. This is four straps across the back and the crotch strap. How tight I make each one has to do with my size. I need to be able to slip it over my head. For me this takes some trial and error. If I can't get it on, I adjust the straps longer and try again. (If I can get it on, I adjust the straps shorter and try again.)

Once I figure out how tight to make the straps you can pull it off over your head, re-thread the straps back through the teethed portion of the buckle a second time. (Or put Posey Clips on the strap ends.) Or both. Either one will make getting out later more difficult. This is a picture of the back of the jacket before I slip it over my head.

You may be thinking -- "What about that crotch strap". To slip the Straitjacket over my head, I put my left leg through the crotch strap so that it is behind my knee and my knee up against my chest. I then put my arms into the sleeves as far as I can get them, trying to keep the shirt sleeves down my arms and not bunched up at the shoulders.

Using my hands through the Straitjacket sleeves I lift all four back straps over my head. I can tell you from experience, I need to get all four over, three just doesn't cut it. I then pull the jacket down with my hands through the sleeves and using the crotch strap and my leg.

As I work it down my chest, I also move the crotch strap up my leg, this provides better leverage for using the crotch strap to pull the jacket on.

Once it is all the way down, I straighten the lower edge of the jacket using my hands, again through the sleeves. I never forget to straighten the crotch strap.

Oops. I need to back up. Off with the Straitjacket, a little prep work was needed. A rope, 10 maybe 15 feet long with both ends tied near the same point, a ring in the wall or a heavy chair will do nicely. I have a ring attached to the wall. This forms a big loop. This rope will be used to tighten up the arms, without using my hands. With this preparation done, I slide the jacket back over my head. (I really do this in the right order, it just doesn't make much sense to mention it first.) On to the hard part, getting the arm strap buckled and tightened.

The Posey jacket has three obstacles that make this more difficult. There are three strap loops to thread the arms through. One up front and one under each arm. Both arms go through the loop up front. The right arm, the one without the buckle on the end then goes through the loop under the left arm. (I do that.)

The left arm for now only need to go through the front strap loop on the jacket, but needs to end up through the strap loop under the right arm. I flip the end of the right arm strap around my body and grab it with my left hand an pull it along with my right arm pretty tight. This gives me the end of the strap to work with.

With some body contortions I drop it through the loop under my right arm, and pull again. I also pull the rope through the loop under my right arm. This operation does involve a lot of rolling around on the floor and looking in the mirror to see what is really happening.

The next steps all take patience. Buckling the arm strap to the arm buckle, remembering to put the rope loop under the strap as it goes though the buckle. To get it to happen involves my teeth, my left hand through the sleeve, arm & body motion, sweat, persistence, and luck. While you are at it, try to keep the arm strap from getting twisted. It should lay flat against your back.

This picture is under the right arm. The vertical strap is the loop under the right arm. The black "rope" is a leather strap that shows where the rope loop must be placed. The strap coming in to the picture from the left is attached to the right arm sleeve. The buckle is attached to the left arm sleeve.

(The rope here should really be through the sleeve loop under the right arm - but it didn't photograph very well.)

Working the strap through the keeper over the rope can take me 45 minutes when I do it by myself. For this sequence, the photographer helped me.

Very much the same view as the previous larger picture, just a slightly different angle.

For the Straitjacket connoisseur, the Posey jacket has changed some over the years. Early version had roller buckles. The could be undone by getting a little slack an shaking the buckle. The current friction buckle must be in the metal keeper on the buckle to even be partially secure. The cloth keeper is just for show as best as I can tell. Just putting it through the teethed opening will not hold the strap. Other minor changes to the Posey Jacket are larger sleeve ends and a larger opening for the front arm loop. The X stitch pattern, on recent ones only covers half of the horizontal strap. On some of their jacket it is difficult to get both arms through the front chest loop. Not that it really makes much difference.

For the curious, I am over 6 foot and weigh about 175 pounds, This puts me on the thin side, and probably helps me do this. The Posey jacket is a large, that means it has a yellow collar stripe. The recommended weight range for the large jacket is between 145 an 190 pounds. The chest measurement is recommended between 43 and 49 inches. My chest, directly under the arms measures 40 inches. I haven't asked Posey to make me a custom jacket, though I would like a better fit.

Now to tighten down the straps. With the arm strap in initially in my right hand through the sleeve and later, when it is longer in my teeth, I pull against the rope loop, pull on the spare strap, then the rope loop, again and again until I work the buckle right up to the end of the left sleeve.

A bit of photographic (photographer) magic between here and the last picture. The rope is now on the other side of the right sleeve loop. If I am really doing it all by myself, the rope need to be threaded through the arm-sleeve loop before the sleeve buckle gets buckled

If you look closely, you will note that the twist in the sleeve strap has been removed. Another advantage of having a photographer nearby.

About the time I shift from using my hand to using my teeth, I slip the end of the strap through the loop under the right arm. I also use a prop of some sort to help me position the end of the arm strap so I can grab it with my had or my teeth. An office chair seems to help getting the strap where I need it.

That is as tight as the Straitjacket can get. Now the easy part, and the hardest part to reverse.

I untie, with my teeth the rope and slide it out of the buckle. As long as the rope is in place it is fairly easy to get out. With it out, it is very difficult. Now the question quickly shifts from how-to-get-in to how-to-get-out. Last time I played this way it took me two hours to get out.

A couple of additional pictures showing the arms through all of the loops.

Saturday, December 21 at 7:22 PM ()/1

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