How to make a leather elven headwear

Basic information

Sewing patterns for both types of headwear are divided into two A4 size pictures. When you print them on a whole page and put it together so the segments concur you get the outlines of all the necessary segments of the left or right half of the headwear. In other words you need to cut all the segments from the leather twice, so that you get their mirror-symmetrical images.

Elven headwear - ver.1	Elwen headwear - ver.2

Material you will need

The best material is probably pig leather 3-5mm thick, thicker one is better. Then you need some hole-punching pliers or awl (I personally recommend pliers, but you can use the awl, too, it’s just more work) and shoe-thread with suitable needle. For final modifications you can use stain, beeswax, parafin and some smaller sauce-pan to melt it.

How to make it

First of all I recommend you to use a sellotape and make a paper model of the headwear. It will help you to get a better idea of how it will finally look like. Then, with hole-punching pliers or awl, make holes in the leather segments. The segments are big enough, so you should’t need to add any tuck. The holes are about 0,5cm from the edge, vis-à-vis on adjacent pieces and about 1cm from each other. Adjacent segments are apparent from the sewing-patterns or from the photos.

When all the holes are prepared you can sew the segments together with a shoe-thread, ideally cross-wise. Sew the segments attached to each other with the seam side. This way we create a basis of the outer ribbing that can be seen on the outside of the headwear. When all the segments are sewed together I recommend you to dip the whole thing into water for one minute, so it will soak with it and then put it on some kind of a last. The best is definitely a plaster casting of a head, but you can use a ball or something like that.

When the headwear on the last gets dry, it will stiffen a bit and it will keep its shape. At this stage I recommend you to drag a thin leather band over mainly the upper seems on the top of the head and sew them cross-wise againg with a shoe-thread. It will make the helmet even firmer and when you receive some headshots you will be happy you had done that.

The rest of the work is just a matter of your taste. For staining the headwear ordinary leather dyes in tones you like are sufficient, those more crative might add some engraving or embossed patterns and even some spines, crowns and other aesthetic elements. Finally rub the helmet with a mix of paraffin and bees wax (ratio 3:1) melted on the cooker. Then just furbish your new helmet with a piece of cloth, so that you are in the first battle neat and clean.

What should the helmet guarantee

First of all, there’s no big difference between this type of a helmet and the metal one – the leather headwear also needs some kind of soft underlay, i.e. some type of a padded cap. With a padded cap you don’t have to be afraid that someone could smash your head. The headwear protects you not only from the hits of softened swords and axes, but it should sustain also the handle of a weapon or a poleaxe, even though I would personally prefer to watch the hardest fights from a distance, with a bow or a pike in my hands. The leather headwear, as well as the metal one, doesn’t protect you from injuries of your neck so I recommend you to get some neckcloth and try to avoid the poleaxes, which cause the majority of neck injuries.

Good luck!

Autor: Kubamrtvola
Fotografie: Kubamrtvola; Lassy; Morgoth