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Costumes are great for kids whether they are for pretend play, special occasions, or Halloween. I made this cute knight armor to fit my son’s one year old knight and dragon themed party. This cardboard knight armor tutorial gave me the idea to make knight armor, but I adapted it to use foam sheets instead of cardboard. I think the foam sheets made it a little more simple and were more comfy for a squirmy one year old.
How to Make Knight Armor
Materials:
Creating the Helmet:
I started my knight armor by making the helmet. First, I cut one large rectangle (the back of the helmet) and two smaller rectangles (the visor) from grey foam. I then cut a swoop out of both of the visor pieces. Later, I realized I should have made the visor as one piece instead of two, but oh well.
Before gluing anything together, I wanted to make sure these main pieces were going to fit my son’s head. I taped them together and tried them on my son. Every time I put it on his head, he took off crawling at full speed even thought the visor completely cut off his sight. I guess he got a good adrenaline rush out of it.
Once I was happy with the sizing of everything, I hot glued the two visor pieces together. Then, I cut slits out to make it look more like a visor. Cutting the slits may be easier to do with an X-ACTO knife.
Next, I switched to working on the actual helmet part. I cut a small strip out of my grey foam and hot glued it onto the big rectangle piece that I cut out in the first step. I made sure to cut the strip the right length to fit my son’s head.
Then, I hot glued small strips of foam into a cross shape. I glued the cross onto the helmet piece to give it a head shape. I experimented with different lengths to make sure it still fit my son’s head well.
Next, I cut out pieces of foam to fit into the gaps of the helmet. For the feather decoration on top, I cut out a ring shape from a piece of grey foam. Then I cut a long narrow strip to wrap around the ring. Lastly, I cut a feather shape from red foam and hot glued both the ring fixture and the feather onto the helmet.
Finally it was time for finishing touches. I used brads to attach the visor to the helmet and glued a number one I cut from the red foam on the front. The hot glue was a mess all over, so I ran the hot glue gun over it all without squeezing any glue, just to smooth it out a bit.
Creating the Breastplate:
The helmet wasn’t hard to make, but the breastplate was even easier. I started by cutting two rectangles about the size of my son’s front out of grey foam. Then, I cut a semicircle out of the top of both to create a neck hole.
Next, I cut two foam strips about the width of the area to the side of the neck hole. I started by hot gluing them to just one of the breastplate halves. I then taped them to the other half so I could try it on my son. Once I was happy with the size, I glued it to the other side as well.
Then, I cut a big number one out of the red foam and glued it on the front of the breastplate. I also rounded the corners to make it look nicer.
Conclusion of How to Make Knight Armor
I know some of you were reading this and thinking there was no way a one year old would actually wear this. But, my son actually didn’t mind. Although, it probably helped that I put it on while he was eating his castle cake. While, I wish the helmet had looked a little smoother, it was still really cute on him and I was glad I had made it. I really liked how flexible the foam was and how it didn’t hinder him at all. If you like these foam sheets as much as I do, check out my bath fishing net toy that is also made using them.
