Hello again!

You'll be pleased to hear my Sif armour is coming along nicely - it's 90% cut, shaped, primed for painting... (just a couple more arm guards to do!)

Here's the problem: I actually tried to *wear* it the other day. Oh dear. After following the Helms Deep Armour tutorial, I backed it with a fine muslin and coated in in PVA glue. Brill! Stiffened up nicely and it's rugged for all day wear!

Except it's SO uncomfortable! The glue has hardened the rough edges of the muslin into sharp points and I can't sew in a lining for fear of damaging the sealed foam.

What can I do?! I was considering a self-adhesive felt lining as sold by Dunelm Mill, but I'm not sure it'll be soft enough for all day wear. Then I considered foam pads (like the stuff used for underlay or similar, but I don't want to bulk out the armour too much as it's meant to be form fitting.

Edit: Also, if anyone has any suggestions on how to add straps to actually hold this armour on, it would be appreciated. I'm considering using dots of Shoe Goo to the corners and using a thick fabric as a liner, then attaching velcro strapping to the lining - would this work?

Thanks a lot

I don't know if this will work, but have you tried sanding the points down?

As to attaching it, if it's too heavy then it'll come off the velcro. Maybe snap fasteners instead? Super glue holds everything together, so you wouldn't need to sew them on. If you get the gel form, it's usually better :3

The snap fasteners sound like a way forward - it's not that the armour is heavy, but it's awkward.

I'm going to try lining one piece of it, to see if it's soft enough and use Shoe Goo, I'll let you know how it goes.

Incidentally, Nixie, are you still in Norfolk? Would be interested to meet up at Expo as it's not often in our rural county I see another cosplayer-type.

Oh, are you Norfolk too? Never realised lol. There is a couple of us floating around the place lol. Enough to do meets in Norwich It would be cool to meet up though ;p Also, especially if you're Lady Sif on the Sun, what with me being Amora/The Enchantress XD

But yeah, velcro is awesome stuff but it has the risk of whatever it's holding being yanked off accidentally. The risk is there with poppers, but it's still not as difficult.

I wish I could help more with the glue problem - maybe warming/heating up the gluey area to the point it's soft enough for your to smooth over?

I'll see if I can make it on the Sunday, not sure what the plan is yet as some of it depends on travel plans. Will have to let you know closer to the time, but will make an effort. Either way I'm going to be hanging about here begging for help every five minutes so I'll be around

After some consideration, I'm going to Shoe Goo on some thick-ish fabric as a liner and try the poppers sewn into that. I'll let you know how it goes!

I line most of my stuff with felt, glued on with contact adhesive. It's soft and cheap!