Anton's Guide to Caring for your Rubber Gear
Rubber gear is wonerful to wear. I'm sure you agree or you wouldn't be reading this page. But it can be very tricky stuff. I love the feeling once I'm wearing it, nice tight rubber squeezing my flesh, sexy against my skin, little rivulets of sweat running down inside teasing me. Glorious! But getting it on is a different story, and sooner or later you're bound to damage it, no matter how careful you are. It only takes one careless moment and you've pushed a fingertip through it or torn it. Often you need to modify things, either to fit or to meet some special extra-kinky idea that you have. I've been wearing rubber and revelling in it for so long that I thought it might help someone to write down some of the things I've learned. Enjoy!
Rubber is a natural material, as I'm sure you know. It's made from the collected sap of a tropical tree, you might even know the proper biological name for it which is more than I do. What comes from the tree is a milky-white liquid. If it's left to set it forms a sticky mess which isn't much use for anything, but if it is used properly it sets into the wonderful stretchy stuff that we all know and love. In practice there are additives which are used to get better results, though I don't know too much about the details. But no matter what is done, it is never very strong, which lies at the root of our problems. To make it strong enough for most applications (like tyres for example) it is treated a lot more and while this certainly makes it more useful, it's not of much interest to us fetishists. Natural rubber is milkily translucent, I'm sure you've seen things made of so-called "clear" latex. It lets light through but for instance if you wear a clear latex hood you can't see very much, if anything, just big shapes and light and dark. For most purposes pigments are added which give colour and of course make it opaque. The most common fetish colour is black, but anything is possible.
Rubber gear is made in one of two ways. It can either be moulded or fabricated. Moulded gear is probably the most common, and is what you find in the average sex shop. It is made directly from the liquid latex, to which pigment and setting agents have been added. A former is made, normally flat, in the desired shape of the finished article. It's easier to think about this with an example, so let's suppose we're going to make some rubber panties. The former is cut to the flat shape of the panties, with a handle so it can be dipped in the liquid. The dipping happens many times, each time picking up a little more thickness. When it has been dipped enough and the rubber is thick enough, the garment can be removed from the former. Most things need holes in them, and our panties certainly do - at least for the legs and waist and maybe one or two more for some fun. These are cut out of the raw garment as needed. It's cheap (well, relatively) and quick to make things this way, and you can make them any shape you want. There are disadvantages to moulded construction though. The outside surface is always a bit uneven and can never be given the kind of high polish that we all dream of. This is fine for underwear and so on but not so good for a catsuit or a dress. Moulded gear is always quite fragile too, maybe because of little imperfections in the rubber resulting from the dipping process, and often it doesn't age very well.
It's possible to mould using a three-dimensional former. I think the Latexa range - the luxury end of moulded latex - might be made like this. In fact Latexa moulded gear is in a whole different class from anything else I've seen. It is shiny and has a high gloss finish, and is comparable to fabricated stuff. It also has a wonderful smell and feel. Unfortunately it does seem extra fragile, and it perishes quite quickly (more on this later). All of my lovely Latexa things have long since gone to the great fetish party in the sky.
The other way to make rubber clothes is from sheets of rubber, cut into shapes then glued or sewn into a complete garment. The idea is no different from any other material, cotton or wool or leather. Making rubber sheeting is a specialist business. The best-known supplier is 4D Rubber in England, although I suppose there must be others. Because it is an industrial process, it can be carefully controlled. Rubber sheet made like this has a constant thickness, a consistent quality and most important for us, a nice hard shiny surface. Very thick and very thin garments can only be made this way. Assembling the pieces of cut rubber can be done either using glue or by stitching, or both. My own experience is that glue gives the best results. (I've never tried to make anything this way, but I've owned and used a lot). When it is done professionally, a glued seam is very strong and I can't remember ever having one fail on me. Stitching on the other hand doesn't work very well. The problem is that rubber stretches and cotton thread doesn't. Eventually the thread breaks and the seam unravels. There are various tricks to try and stop this, like using lycra thread or zig-zag stitching, but they all seem to give up the ghost eventually. If the garment was both glued and stitched, it doesn't matter too much if the stitches break, but it is unsightly unless you carefully remove all the thread, and the little holes greatly weaken the rubber. Rubber hates holes. I'll talk some more about that later. If stitching was the only thing holding it together then of course it will fall apart. I had a kind of romper suit from Weathervain that I quite liked that was made this way. It's now in my large pile of things needing mending, but it is such a huge job that I'll probably never get around to it - it has pretty much fallen apart, and needs putting back together from scratch.
So, if you really want good-looking rubber gear, you need to pay the extra (often quite a lot extra) to get the fabricated stuff. Try to avoid anything which is sewn. For things like panties, gloves and socks, moulding is fine, with the advantage that it's easier to adapt and modify - which I'll talk about below. And for things like bondage games and self-bondage (yum!) where appearance is less important, moulded gear is fine, and quite a lot cheaper. It's fine if it's all you can afford, too - despite a kind of strange snobbery which I came across in a recent article in Skin Two. Most fetishists get started with moulded stff, because it's easier to find as well as cheaper.
Like I said, rubber is the very devil to get on (if it's tight, which most things should be). It's nearly as hard to get off, and it's very fragile. Needless to say, this can get complicated and often expensive. Chances are that every wonderful dress or catsuit or whatever will end its life with a tear or a finger-hole, usually just when you are getting dressed up for that big party. You can repair small things - as I describe later - but a big rip across the front or back is terminal.
The key to getting rubber onto you is lubrication, and plenty of it. Talc is the most common way, although liquid lube is much better. If you're using talc, use loads and loads of it. Buy a big jar of baby powder and use it generously. You'll know if you're using enough because the air will be full of talc, you'll be sneezing and every surface will be covered with a white film. It sounds like I'm kidding, but I'm not. Blast talc down arms and legs before trying to slip them on, amd for good measure smother yourself in it and spread it carefully around as well. Anywhere the rubber will have to stretch is particuarly important - thighs, upper arms, and shoulders for example. You really need to cover yourself in the stuff. Then you should find that legs and sleeves slide on fairly easily. If you need to keep your rubber habit a secret - if you're still living with your parents, maybe - this can be a bit of a problem. Of course if you live on your own or with a partner who's as much into it as you are, it's OK and all part of the fun.
But even with as much talc as you can use, I found there were garments I just couldn't put on or that quickly became very uncomfortable around places like elbows and knees. Then I discovered liquid lube. The stuff I use is made by Eros but there are several others. This is truly wonderful stuff. It has only two disadvantages. First, it's quite expensive. And second, it isn't easy to remove afterwards. It takes a couple of days, if you're generous with it, before it has gone completely from your skin. But it's worth it. Pour it generously over arms, legs and your body, and for good measure pour some into the garment itself as well. You'll find that things just slither on deliciously, and carry on slithering all night long. In addition to being easy it feels great. There's one exception, one place where slithering is actually not good, and that's around your feet. Particularly if you're wearing precarious shoes, your favourite six-inch stilettos for example, slithering is bad. So use talc on your feet and try to avoid getting lube on them. One other exception: don't use talc or lube for hoods. Getting either in your eyes is extremely unpleasant. Tight hoods are a wonderful sensation but if you can't get it on without lube, you can't really wear it.
Even with all that lubrication, putting rubber on requires a lot of care. Rubber hates fingertips. Hooking a fingertip into rubber, as you do without even thinking about in other materials, is just about guaranteed to make a hole. Try to spread your grip over as much area as possible. Use all of your fingers and hook them over so that the rubber is resting on your knuckles - hard to describe but quite easy to do. Or grip the rubber between your finger and thumb. Anything but sticking a fingertip or two straight into it. The best way, once you have it on, is to smooth it up over your legs, arms and body using your hands, as if it was beauty cream or clay. This works quite well with liquid lube, less well with talc. If things start to get difficult, add more lubrication. You may have to partially remove a sleeve or a leg to add more. With very tight items, like my favourite one-piece zipless catsuit, you may even need to start all over again if you didn't use enough lube. Be patient. Most damage happens when you're in a hurry. Tight arms and legs will bunch up and often fold over themselves. Trying to undo this is one of the most frequent causes of damage. Try to ease the fold undone either by sliding, or if that doesn't work by gripping the rubber netween your fingers and thumb. Once more, using a fingertip will often result in expensive damage.
One thing rubber hates even more than fingertips is fingernails. If you normally keep your nails short, make sure they are trimmed before trying to put on rubber. If you normally keep them long then you need to wear gloves. The cotton gloves used by jewellers are ideal, if you can find them. If not then rubber gloves, the kitchen variety, work quite well, although their erotic value is pretty low!
Another problem area is heels. Getting a catsuit, tights or whatever over them is always a problem, because they are much thicker than the leg. You really need to help tight rubber over your heels. Use plenty of talc or lube, as always. Don't try to pull something right up your leg, leaving the heel until last. Bunch it up like a pair of nylon tights, and slip your fingers between the heel and the rubber to ease everything over, then start unbunching it again. Items with a built-in foot and a long leg, like tights with feet, are especially awkward. You also need to be careful to let all of the air out of the foot, otherwise you will end up looking like a balloon man (or woman), and you won't be able to get your shoes on. Use a couple of fingers around the heel, and gently squeeze the air out with your other hand. Shoulders can be difficult too, especially with tight-fitting catsuits. They're really a test of whether you've got everything pulled up enough. If not, you will have the frustrating experience of tugging and queezing but having big bags under the armpits. These are uncomfortable and make it impossible to move normally, and worse, they put a lot of strain on the rubber and often result in tears later on. One thing worse than ripping a favourite garment while you are putting it on is having it rip in the middle of a great night, leaving you with a big patch of bare flesh and a loose flap of rubber. Try to avoid leaving areas that will get tugged and strained while you are wearing them, keep everything tight to your skin. Often tight items will bunch up as you pull them over your back. If you have someone helping you there is no problem, but if you're getting dressed on your own this can result in much struggling and bad language. The secret, as always, is lubrication, lots of it. Rub liquid lube or talc into your back and shoulders.
Zips can be a problem in tight clothes (the best kind). Ideally a zip needs three hands, and therefore two people: two hands to pull the zip together, and one to pull on the zipper itself. With a front zip you can generally manage yourself, but a back zip in a dress or catsuit is just about impossible. If you do have to dress by yourself, the best thing is try on any item with a back zip and be sure you can do it alone before buying. Otherwise it can be very frustrating. I had a back-zip catsuit once and I made a long hook to close the zip, but still it eventually ripped beyond repair as I tugged at the zip. Of course you have to be very careful with zips not to get anything caught in them. It's a good idea to protect your most delicate bits with rubber panties. Even the most dedicated masochist is unlikely to enjoy it when a zip runs away and grabs his cock. Even less sensitive things, like hair and underwear, can jam in a zip and make it completely stuck, unable to move either way. I've never had to cut a garment off yet, but I've come close a couple of times with stuck zips. If you let go of a zip before it is completely closed, it will sometimes zoom open again, very fast, under the tension of the rubber.
Putting on tight rubber over rubber can be very hard, not to say impossible. Rubber loves to stick to itself. Small things underneath, like panties, are no problem at all, but if you want to put on a snug catsuit over a pair of tights, you can have real problems. Before liquid lube, there were some things that were impossible. Among its magic properties though, it lets rubber slide smoothly over rubber, as long as you use lots of it. Be careful though. Some other things make rubber easy to put on. Nylon tights, for example, stick to rubber much less than skin does. Of course then you don't have the wonderful feeling of rubber next to your skin.
There's nothing better than a long sweaty evening in rubber. Whether it's clubbing or something a lot more private and intimate, there's the tight, hot feel of the rubber slipping over your skin, squeezing you in nice places. And if it's sometimes a little bit uncomfortable, well that's sometimes even better. But there are a few things you need to be aware of.
Under rubber you'll sweat like crazy, especially if it's hot and you're dancing. This creates two problems. First, you must drink to replace the sweat, especially if it's going to be a long night. Second, all that sweat has to go somewhere. It dribbles out at the wrists and ankles of a catsuit, and through the cracks in zips and the like. As long as it's just sweat it doesn't matter too much, but if you have used talc it will leave tell-tale white spots everywhere, the dreaded talc spots. There's absolutely nothing you can do about this, except not to use talc. (Liquid lube doesn't mix with water so it doesn't have this problem). Even talc you used during storage will be enough, and if you've used masses of the stuff to get dressed then it will leave very dense white stains. The stains aren't permanent on most things, but they are quite difficult to remove. If you're visiting someone they certainly won't appreciate having to clean them up when you're gone, though it doesn't really matter if you're clubbing. And if you're like a lot of people - sadly - and you have to get your rubber fix when you're alone in a flat or house you share with someone, look round very carefully afterwards. Once you know what these spots are, they're completely unmistakeable and a dead giveaway. If you sit in a chair, sweat will find its way through zips and you'll inevitably find yourself sitting in a damp patch. You won't mind, or even notice, but on most furniture materials it will stain and be very hard to remove. Again, not the best way to get invited back. Leather furniture - and of course rubber if you know people that have it - are easy to wipe clean afterwards. All in all, this is an excellent advertisment for both liquid lube and for leather furniture. Even with liquid lube you'll leave sweat spots, but they are much less conspicuous - although they can still leave obvious stains on cloth.
The only solution is to provide no way for the sweat to escape. This means covering your feet and hands with more rubber, and absolutely no zips. That's fine for an evening on your own, but it may not be very compatible with other things you were thinking of doing, not to mention when you need to go to the loo. (If you're like my friend Pauline it's different, there's nothing she likes better than pissing and shitting herself inside a rubber outfit and feeling it all swill and slosh around inside. But not everyone is like her. And even then, the smell will escape. Pauline after a long evening in rubber is not someone that most people would want to share a confined space with. She's OK with that, because she generally chooses people who do want to share the space, but I'm sure you can see what I mean).
Rubber can get very uncomfortable if you wear it for a long time. I don't just mean sweat and so on, which is all part of the pleasure. It can work itself into tight creases around elbows and knees, which if a garment is tight and made of quite heavy material, can hurt like hell and leave very obvious straight-line bruises that last for days and weeks. Don't plan to wear something tight for a long session until you've had a chance to try it for just an hour or so. Liquid lube is a big help in preventing this.
All good things have to come to an end, and eventually you'll be tired and want to take your rubber gear off and go to bed. Or if you like to sleep in it - not many people do, but I know some - you'll need to take it off to go to work or whatever. This is actually the most dangerous time for rubber, because generally you're tired and just want to get it off so you can flop into bed. Chances are you're drunk or something, too. All the same you need to be just as careful taking it off as you were putting it on. No fingertips, and no fingernails. Dresses and the like are easy, though you may have trouble gettings zips started, and be careful in case they zoom open and trap something, A zip trapping a sensitive part of you when you're already exhausted is no fun, at all (guess how I know). Catsuits and other tight things can be harder. Ease them gently over arms and legs, turning them inside out, and help them over wrists and ankles by sliding the flat of your hand between the rubber and your skin. If you're wearing several layers, be careful of getting one layer tangled up inside another. This can create a horrific knot which will have you in tears as you try to puzzle out which layer belongs to what and to separate them.
Remember about all that sweat. Again, no problem under a dress, although your skin will be damp and you may suddenly feel really cold - but just diving under the bedclothes will solve that. But when you take off gloves, stockings or a catsuit, you may have literally a flood of sweat (and maybe other things too, if you're like Pauline). Unless you want a real mess, stand or sit in the bath or shower to get undressed. Be careful not to slip over, wet rubber is very slippery, hang on tight. You can quite safely leave all your rubber gear where it falls, while you sleep off the evening. It does need to be cleaned up, but nothing bad will happen if you leave it for a few hours. Don't leave it in a sweaty heap for days or weeks though.
When you feel up to it, the first thing to do is rinse everything. Get rid of sweat, oil from your skin, and anything else. The easiest thing to do is just hold it under the shower for a while, or slosh it round in the bath or basin of water. Nothing is easier than drying rubber (good job something is easy, huh?). Put big things on a hanger, or small things over a towel rail or something like that - but never a heated towel rail, that curse of British bathrooms. This will destroy your treasured rubber gear before you can say "Thomas Crapper". Straighten things out so there are no folds and so on. Water likes to hide in folds in rubber, and wherever two rubber surfaces touch they will not dry out. (Rubber does actually absorb a small amount of water, surprisingly). If necessary, rearrange it from time to time while it is drying. Once one side is dry, turn it over to dry the other side. Then turn it the other way out and repeat. You can completely dry even something big in an hour or two this way. Be careful turning things inside out, especially things with dead-ends like tights and gloves, because they may have lots of water in them which sprays everywhere - including over things that had just got nicely dry.
Once you've got everything dry, you need to prepare it for storage. Be careful it isn't stuck together anywhere, and carefully peel it apart if it is. Usually this will just be a patch that didn't dry. If it is hopelessly stuck together and any attempt to unstick things makes it worse, say goodbye to it. It has perished - see below. Sprinkle lots of talc inside and shake it around to make sure that all the inside surfaces are covered in a thin film of it. This isn't so important for things like dresses and small underwear items, where the surfaces don't touch, but it is important for stockings, catsuits and so on.
Now you have to put it away. Rubber doesn't like: heat, light (especially sunlight), any kind of metal or oil, or tight folds. It's pretty fussy. The first few are easy to avoid, but the last one may be a surprise. If you carefully fold your rubber gear as you would any other garment, and leave it in a drawer or cupboard, you will quite often find that it has turned white along the foldline. I'm not sure why this is, maybe the pigment somehow migrates away from the crease, but whatever the reason it can be a big problem. Sometimes the colour will return if you refold differently and leave it for a few weeks, but sometimes it won't, and you're stuck with a fairly conspicuous white mark. Ideally, you should leave things in a loose heap in a thick black plastic bag, and shake them up every few days. Of course this is unlikely to be very practical. Failing that, you really need to make a point of unfolding things and refolding them differently quite often. If anyone knows a way to make these marks go away, I'd love to know about it. Anyway, always keep rubber somewhere dark - any cupboard or drawer will be fine. Also, don't let it touch anything metal - many metals will discolour or damage rubber, copper especially. Heat will also damage it. It's not clear whether cold is bad for it or not. (I had a friend who kept rubber gear in an unheated garage. When he got it out, some was hard and had to be warmed up before it softened again. Other things were unaffected. The things that hardened did eventually seem to perish, but whether it was due to the storage in the cold, we had no idea). Best thing is to keep it at a comfortable temperature for people, or a bit less. (I suppose one of those fancy wine storage cabinets would be perfect). It's best not to mix different colours too - keep each different colour in a bag of its own.
Natural rubber is actually a fairly reactive chemical substance. This why you have to keep it away from so many things, because it is just dying to react with them all. Luckily it doesn't want to react with human beings (although some people are allergic - not much we can do for them I'm afraid, except advise them to choose a different fetish). With age, it can undergo a change called perishing. This means it becomes sticky and gooey and also becomes much easier to tear. It's almost as though it's turning back to a liquid state. The first signs of perishing are a slightly sticky feel. At this stage it can still be worn and used normally, but be prepared for things to get worse. As it gets stickier, it starts to stick to itself until you just can't get it untangled - as fast as you unstick one place, another places sticks. And if you pull at it, often it will tear. Once it has gone this far, there is only one thing to do. Dress up in black clothes (rubber of course), play some suitably sad music, stand to attention in your highest heels, and put it in the dustbin.
Some rubber perishes much faster than others. I've never understood why. As far as I can remember, I've never had anything made from sheet rubber perish, although I'm sure it could happen. The few Latexa things I have owned have all gone this way and are now only a memory (but a pretty good one). Some moulded things perish within a couple of years, others are still perfect ten or fifteen years later. There's no reason to believe that one perished item can affect another, it isn't like a contagious disease. Certainly heat, light and especially sunlight will make any rubber perish quickly. Human oils, from skin, may also have an effect.
Rubber tears very easily but quite unpredictably. You can put something on and take it off a dozen times with no sign of trouble, and then the next time it rips all up one side and is ruined. It's quite hard to get a tear started in rubber, as you can demonstrate by taking something old and pulling it as hard as you can. But once a tear does start it will race away and in a tiny fraction of a second it will run to a place where the material is not under tension, sometimes for a foot or more. This is why it is desperately important not to start tears with your fingers. Common sense says that it's the thinnest places that will stretch the most, and this is where tears start. To give things a long life you need to reinforce edges, especially ones that will stretch a lot as you put things on, such as the waistbands of panties, and shoulder straps. Fabricated garments, good quality ones anyway, have all the edges reinforced, and it is rare (though not unknown) for them to rip from an edge. For moulded garments, especially ones that you like a lot, it is definitely worth reinforcing them as I describe later.
Small holes are also a place where rips often start. Invisible pinholes, maybe caused by a fingernail or a zip, will stretch as the garment is worn and will suddenly rip. Check for them occasionally by holding thigs up to the light. If you do find one, a small circular patch on the inside will prevent damage later and be practically invisible.
Moulded gear often has wekaness at places where there are complicated folds, such as armpits and the crotch. It seems as though for some reason the liquid used in the manufacture doesn't want to stick there. You can easily detect this because these parts may feel thinner and may even be slightly transparent. These are also high-stress areas, so you have the worst combination. If you find a garment like this, it's worth reinforcing this part, although it's hard to do, and just about impossible to do neatly, because of the complex curves.
Gloves are very vulnerable, and it's unusual for them to last very long. The fingers often get damaged just from handling things or from zips, and long sleeves seem very difficult to handle. Nearly all of mine have died from half-moon shaped rips in the sleeves. Small holes in the fingers are easy to repair though. Anything that covers the feet is damaged easily, too. Cheap moulded rubber socks are a good idea, because when they are badly damaged they can just be put into the offcut bag. Minor damage, such as is often caused by toenails or small rips at the heel, can easily be repaired.
This is probably the bit you've been waiting for. No matter how careful you are, you will damage your rubber gear - you'll stick a finger through it, or tear it from an edge. If the damage is minor, it can easily be repaired - though not completely invisibly. Even major damage can be repaired although it may not be worth the effort, especially since the repair will certainly show. Everything that works for repairs also works for modifications. You probably don't want to mess with an expensive dress or catsuit, but you can do a lot wih inexpensive moulded stuff to make it better suit what you want. I'll give an example later on.
The first thing you need is the Rubber Fetishist's Maintenance Kit. This needs to include:
Here's how to repair a small straight tear, or a hole or U-shaped tear resulting from finger damage.
Bigger repairs follow the same principle. The patch will probably be bigger and have a more complicated shape. If the patch is large, you can just apply tape around the edges. The hardest thing with large repairs is step 2, getting the tear nicely lined up ready for the patch. If the tear happens in an area where there are complex curves (e.g. armpits and the crotch especially in moulded items, which can be just about impossible to fix) then you will find it hard to apply a patch neatly and may just have to accept that it won't be perfect. Small creases aren't too serious, especially if they are in an area that isn't too visible. Bubbles can be a problem. Sometimes you can gradually push them to an edge, or you can use a pin to burst them and let the air out.
If a tear extends across a sharp crease in a moulded item (where it went around an edge of the former), the best patch will be made from a similar crease cut from another moulded item. Even so it is difficult to get everything to stick together properly across the crease, so make sure the patch extends at least half an inch beyond it.
You can see that masking tape is pretty useful stuff. Before I found out, my repairs were always extremely messy. I would try to hold the sides of a tear together as I stuck the patch down, which never worked, and the patch itself was a curly sticky mess that wanted to glue itself down everywhere except the right place. It's very easy to tell which repairs were pre-tape and which ones post-tape. I got the idea from the alt.sex.fetish.fashion faq, and quite a few other ideas too.
At some point you have to decide whether it's worth bothering. You can spend hours fixing something, and it might have been better just to accept its demise. Big fixes are always quite fragile and will often come undone later. Cheaper items especially just aren't worth it, better to buy another one and add the original to your scrap bag.
You don't have to accept your rubber gear just the way you bought it. It's best not to try and mess with expensive stuff, unless you have become very confident of your abilities. Since all rubber gear is hand made, you can often get modifications made before you buy. But with cheaper stuff, especially moulded gear, you can have a lot more fun if you don't mind making a few changes. As an example, I bought a pair of butt-plug pants a few years ago. The idea is simple and I'm sure you've seen it: simpled moulded rubber panties with a fair-sized butt-plug at the rear. The problem was, the full cut of the panties around the bottom meant that they actually held the plug out of where it should be. The solution was to narrow the rear part down to a thong, slipping nicely between the cheeks, and holding the plug in rather than out. However that led to more problems. The rubber was too stretchy to do its job, and the waist around the outside of the thighs was so narrow that it probably wouldn't last long. At the front, they were too narrow to hold the cock and balls securely in place. The last problem was solved by cutting a small hole (about 3/4", 2cm, across) so the cock and balls could be pulled through and then restrained as desired by a second garment or device. The hole was also too stretchy though. A long strip of rubber front front to back through the crotch, with holes cut for the plug and ball-hole, made everything tighter, while a similar strip around the waist provided reinforcement there as well as reducing the irritating tendency rubber has to fold over and roll up, often painfully trapping tiny hairs. Finally a wide reinforcing piece at each side, folded around the inside at the bottom for strength, has stopped them ripping at the sides which is the usual way panties meet their end.
The techniques for this kind of work are basically the same as for repairs. Removing stuff is obvious, just mark the shape you want with the pen, and then cut along it with the scissors. Obviously you should mark on the inside, and preferably in such a way that you remove the marks with the unwanted material. Sharp, stiff scissors are essential if you are to do this neatly. Be careful to leave edges tidy, because little tears and bumps make the edge much weaker and more liable to tear. Cut patches as you need from scrap, and fix them on as described above. If you need to, you can put on several layers of patches. This is useful to reduce stretchiness or to cover complicated shapes.
With a bit of imagination there are a lot of simple changes like these that you can make. The butt-plug pants were useless before, but have served very effectively for many years since. A similarly-modified pair of normal cheap moulded panties makes a strap to hold in other plugs. The shoulder straps of moulded leotards invariably rip across the narrowest part after a few wearings, but reinforcing them along their loength prevents this. And so on.
Well, I hope you find this useful. Rubber is wonderful stuff, but it is just so fragile and difficult to put on. With a bit of tender loving care you can get your expensive rubber wardrobe and toys to last for much longer. It's no longer such a tragedy when you put your finger through your favourite dress or catsuit. And if you have tips or ideas that I haven't covered, I'd be delighted to hear about them.