Defender: A New Steampunk Helmet

Time to start a new steampunk helmet/mask. This one has a working title of Defender. My last project—the underground explorer helmet—was met with much critical acclaim.



Since it started with pulling a pattern from a simple toy helmet, I have decided to use the same technique for the Defender's helmet. This time the form is a Darth Vader plastic helmet that I found at a yard sale.



Here I have covered half the helmet in two plus layers of masking tape, and marked with a felt pen where my seam lines will go.



These are the two patterns cut off of the helmet and laid down flat on cardboard. Next I will adjust these pieces so that they will work in leather, then cut the leather and handstitch all four pieces together.

Pattern Drafting 101

The Spaceman Helmet
Above are several views of the collar that I wanted for the spaceman helmet. For the helmet itself I had the toy helmet to tape and pull a pattern from, but how do I come up with a pattern for the collar?

The illustrations above show the theory of attaching two flat pieces of leather together to form a three dimensional object. The silver objects are tubes which represent the helmet (or the crown of a hat). The gold objects represent the collar (or brim of a hat).
If we cut the collar in a donut shape with the inside hole having the same diameter as the tube, when attached the collar will be horizontal. If we cut the collar in a rectangle, when attached the collar will be vertical, ie. continue the lines of the tube.
Since the shape we want is somewhere in between these two extremes, we need to cut the collar in a large curve, as illustrated in the bottom drawing.

However, we don't want a collar that is uniformly angled down. Looking back at the first set of drawings we see that over the shoulders the angle needs to be closer to horizontal than vertical, whereas over the chest and back the angle needs to be closer to vertical than horizontal.
This final drawing shows the compromise made. Since the seams fall at the front and the back of the helmet wearer, the center of the pattern will be over the shoulders. And so, the middle is quite rounded (to make it more horizontal), while the two pattern ends are almost straight (to make them more vertical).

Space Helmet: Designing the mouth/nosepiece

When I tried on the plastic child's astronaut helmet, I could barely squeeze my head into it, and it touched my nose, so I decided early on to make a removable "snout" to give room for the nose, and to allow the wearer access to the mouth and nose without having to remove the helmet. Today I worked on designing that piece, working with green paper to figure out the patterns.


Once I was satisfied with the pattern I cut it out in leather, wet it and sewed it together with waxed thread. The snout will have two matching cold cast respirators on either side (where the two holes are), and one small something on the front. I have mostly built the respirator model out of acrylic sheet, and will mold it in rubber and cast it in resin.

The snout attaches to the helmet with four snaps on each corner, plus a buckle on each side (notice the protruding rivet where the buckle will attach on a short strap).

Next up will be making a visor which will completely cover the eye opening, and a collar to hold the helmet up off of the head, and to help keep its shape.

Space Helmet: It Ain't What it Seams

I have now cut and stitched together the four main parts of the helmet, and then shaped the wet leather over the yard sale plastic original. The toy astronaut helmet serves not only as a pattern source, but also as a shaping form. It reminds me of the underwater helmets worn by the crew of the Nautilus, with its roundedness.

At the end of yesterday's blog I decided that the plain exposed seam I had tried (and was planning for the entire helmet) wasn't the best choice, so I ripped out the one seam that I had done, and restitched it.

I replaced the side seams with overlapping seams, and for the center seam I chose a butt seam (since an overlapping seam has to favor one side or the other, and won't be symmetrical).

There are three different types of handsewn seams that I use in my leatherwork: Overlap, butt and plain. Below are the three types illustrated.

The plain seam can add structural strength and really emphasize the seam line, as can be seen on my firemaster's helmet. It is the historically traditional seam for firefighter's helmets, but it requires more effort to shape. On my steampunk gas mask you can see examples of the butt seam and the overlap seam.

Once the wet-formed helmet has dried, I will figure out the removable front piece that will cover the mouth, and also design a piece with a lense to cover the eyes.