Arming Cap / Helmet Padding

This story will be a two ible story, the first part(this) will be about the padding of the next ible.

Spoiler alert: it'll be a helm ( not telling you what kind though;) ).This part of the project doesn't take that long and only requires basic sewing skills so its an easy way to add to your armour collection!

It'll be a short list this time:

Tools:

Sewing machine / needle

Marker

Scissors

Hoodie

Safetypins

Materials:

Cloth (mine is an old cotton sheet)

Filling material (I used cotton wool)

Thread

Optional:

Rubber mallet (or similar heavy but "soft" object)

So start out by taking your cloth and folding it double, fold the hood of your hoodie neatly down the middle. Next place the hood of your hoodie on the cloth so you can trace it and secure the two layers with safetypins. Now cut off the excess on the bottom (but not the sides or top yet). You now have one side of the hood.

(Remember to leave some room for the seams)

Once done make another one, so that you have the two sides that'll make up the arming cap. Put one ontop of the other and add a ring of safetypins so fix the two halves together. Now you can try it on and alter the shape a bit if needed. Now cut around the safetypins with about 2-4 cm room for seam allowance.

Ok so both halves are cut, the first thing to do is to sew the bottom. Once done remove the safetypins and place them back through the top layer only! Now flip the whole thing inside out so the seam is on the inside and the safetypins mark the line(thats on the inside now).

Trace along the safetypins so you have the line on the outside of the cloth. Remove the safetypins and figure out how wide you want your lines to be, mine are about 4cm apart. Sew in your reinforcement seams / lines (sorry didn't take any pictures).

Next comes the lengthy process of stuffing the halves...... put on a (few) movie(s) and just jam in some stuffing material and ram it down with a marker. Remember to do some other stuff once in a while to keep your sanity.

Once its filled up to the line do the other halve

Once most of the padding is added start sewing up the piece along the marked line. When you get to about halfway between two lines stop sewing and fill up the last little holes(picture 2). Continue doing this untill you have both halves finished.

Now you can beat up your project!:P This helps distribute and compress the filling so the end product will be a bit tougher and thinner.

The next step is to sew the two halves together and flip it inside out. You can wear it like it is now or you can adjust it a little bit by soaking it in water and shaping it to my head.

Now go on and build a matching helm;)

Onto the next ible!