My daughter's third grade class is studying vikings. The kids seem to be particularly attracted to this culture - its brashness and adventure. They culminate their studies this week by dressing up in viking costume. M. told me she needed to have a costume three weeks ago. But, somehow (as usual) I left it to the last minute. Not that I have anything else to do this week, anticipating 15 people at my house for a Passover seder tomorrow.
To give M. credit, she told me that she would make a helmet out of paper if I didn't have time to sew one. But, I was kind of into the idea of making one myself. I designed it based on the helmets pictured in a history book we had on the shelf. The outer fabric is a simple grey cotton. The lining is a heavier brown twill. I used a medium weight interfacing to make it stand up nice and crisp like a metal helmet would. The band is yellow cotton (to mimic the gold trim on the helmets in the book) folded over and simply stitched down onto the brim of the hat. I don't think that fabric nose guard would protect M. much in a sword fight, but it looks pretty nifty. I wanted to embellish the helmet with some sort of crest or cross on the front, but M. declined.