Does anyone know how to restore the velvet on a faded riding helmet? For a work Halloween event, I decided to dress up in show gear but using my old helmet that is smaller. Unfortunately, it is really faded. Any suggestions?
Would regular fabric dye work?
I would presume that because an old, cheap, used velvet helmet not good enough for riding but clean an good enough for a costume is about 10 dollars, you would do as well to find something used, or in the hay loft or something.
I don’t know of anything you can do to restore the color on velvet. You could ask a cleaner’s or someone who alters clothes. Another person to ask would be a cobbler, who would be familiar with dyeing shoes, including women’s velvet shoes.
What about a cheap helmet cover?
Otherwise a black magic marker and some spare time.
Back in the day when we all wore velvet helmets, a trick we used to restore the color was to swab on liquid shoe polish, the kind with the sponge applicator. I don’t even know if it’s available anymore, but it sure worked great.
You can get non toxic floral spray from craft stores - it’s a spray paint meant for artificial or real flowers, and I’ve used it to colour costumes in the past. It doesn’t make the material crunchy or anything, so it might work on velvet.
I used to use tide detergent (powdered kind) watered down. dip cloth in it. Rub onto helmet to get all the gunk off. Then, I followed up with lightly rubbing on some shoe polish, to fight the fading. Not recommended to wear in the rain, but turns out pretty good.
Thank you for all the great suggestions.
