Making a Quilted Aventail

[Ian]

Scott, I just noticed something...

I may be seeing this wrong, but it looks like you're taking the padding all the way up to the verveilles on the outside of the helmet.  Just be careful because that will push the maille out and could interfere with the closing of your visor.  Make sure you test fit with the visor if that's what you're doing.  On my padding it protects my face, but around the sides the padding goes on the inside of the helmet so that up at the verveilles there's only maille.

[Sir Rodney]

Scott, I just noticed something...

I may be seeing this wrong, but it looks like you're taking the padding all the way up to the verveilles on the outside of the helmet.  Just be careful because that will push the maille out and could interfere with the closing of your visor.  Make sure you test fit with the visor if that's what you're doing.  On my padding it protects my face, but around the sides the padding goes on the inside of the helmet so that up at the verveilles there's only maille.

Ian, you’re absolutely correct.  I plan to stop the padding about 1 inch short of the verveilles so as to not interfere with the leather aventail support band which mounts over the fabric aventail.  You made a good point that the visor will have to be included in test fits from this point forward.  I will be padding all the way up to the “valley” between the chin and lower lip up front.

The excess fabric from the inner shell peeking from behind the outer shell will get trimmed.  I’m just not sure yet if I can fit two layers of fabric over the verveilles AND the leather aventail band.  I might have to trim the inner shell back considerably and sew it to the outer shell at the same level as the bottom edge of the bascinet.  Time (and test fits) will tell.

[Sir Rodney]

Good news, two layers of fabric will fit over the vervelles and allow for the leather aventail band to fit as well!

The inner shell excess fabric was trimmed to match the outer shell outline exactly and yet another test fit ensured all is well.

Now, on to the padding…

[Sir Edward]

Looking good!

[Aiden of Oreland]

Awesome! Can't wait to see the end result!

[Ian]

Looks great Scott!  The only thing I did differently is when the padding reaches the helmet, it goes on the inside of the helmet and then I stitched it to the liner.  I think your way will secure it just as well.  Let us know!

[Sir Rodney]

My first ever “selfy”, and in such poor lighting!

[Sir Patrick]

Looks great!

[Sir Brian]

Man that looks awesome! Well done!

[Sir Rodney]

I cut out the padding using my template as a guide.  You can make it as thick or thin as you wish, I chose two layers which offers some protection, but isn't too bulky.

Pin the padding between the inner and outer shells to keep it in place while you sew.  I sketched lines with a fabric pencil as a guide for sewing without being too picky on spacing or straightness.

[Sir Rodney]

I used a simple straight stitch to secure the padding in place.  The idea here was to mimic stuffed tubes as would’ve been done in period.

Once this was complete, I joined the inner and outer shells at the top (neck opening) with an overcast stitch.  Appearance wasn’t critical here as it will be hidden under the leather aventail band.

A fit test with the visor attached was successful.  The final step will be to sew the bottom edges of the mail and padded aventail together by hand with heavy duty thread.

[Ian]

Looks awesome! I suggest a simple whip stitch to attach the maille. It's secure enough to keep it in place and quick to both attach and remove.

[Sir Wolf]

wow that is awesome man. please tell me you saved your patterns lol.  something to be really proud of for sure

[Sir Rodney]

With two layers of fabric added under the leather aventail support band, I'm unable to string my old red cord through the vervelles.  A solid brass wire was used instead.

I started pinning the mail aventail to the padded aventail and discovered that my pattern was too long (the outer diameter was too great) at the NE, NW, SE, and SW points.  I'll have to do some last minute creative trimming and sewing before proceeding.

[Sir Rodney]

These are the four sections that needed to be trimmed.  After the trimming, I simply folded in the raw edges approximately ½” and joined the outer and inner shells with a running stitch.  I really didn’t want this exposed stitch on the bottom edge of the padded aventail, but such is life.

The last step was to join the bottom edges of the mail and padded aventails with synthetic waxed leather crafting thread.  As Ian suggested above, I used a simple whip stitch.

I’m attending an SCA event tomorrow and hope to have good pictures of the finished product posted soon.