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How to make cheap alternative chainmail
🕑 Added 2021-05-20 01:16:33 +0000 UTCMaterials
- Non-slip rug mat
- Baby Powder
- Rustoleum Silver spray paint
- Design Masters Floral Spray (Black)
Hey guys, wanted to share with you how I went about making my chainmail for my Warrior of Light Paladin cosplay. It's REALLY easy and gets the idea of chainmail across rather well in my opinion without needing to spend a lot of real chainmail and also not having to deal with the weight/bulk chain mail has.
So first off, what is it made out of? Well its simply just the rubber floor matting you put under carpets so they don't slip and move around!
These come in various styles but you want to get this version where its a spaced out grid pattern!
Go ahead and unravel the mat and fold it over so it is double layered, I will be making just a chain mail top so a standard sweatshirt pattern is all you need. When cutting out your pattern be sure you make it bigger than you need, that way you can take it in as you go, this material DOES NOT stretch at all and can be a pain to get on and off due to its nature of being a nonslip rubber.
I got the basic shape I needed (Again, making it much larger than myself) and now it was time to sew!
When putting it on your machine to sew, make sure to interlock the grids so that the holes are filled in by the overlapping grid of the top layer, this way you're not sewing into nothing at all.
I used your standard Zig-Zag stitch for this, that way it would catch the fabric much easier and had less chance of messing up (ex. if I used a straight stitch it would be much harder to sew). The material is a bit hard to sew through so take your time and go slowly making sure to adjust as you work your way through.
Repeat the last steps while taking it in and keep trying it on till you get to a point where it fits well enough on your body! You don't want it too tight where it's uncomfortable after all, just loose enough to where it's still fitted/flattering on you.
Now comes painting! Due to it being a rubber and something that will move as I wear it I am using Design Masters Floral spray in black, this is meant to be used on fake flowers and crafts that do move and bend, the paint moves with it and will NOT crack, I usually use this on boots but it works perfectly as base for this. Give a decent coat to both sides and let it dry.
Next I am using a silver spray paint to get the look of metal, the thing with spray paint against rubber is that it doesn't cure 100% properly due to the material, it leaves it a bit sticky but there is an easy way to get rid of the stickyness from the spray paint.
Take some baby powder and put a portion of it inside a plastic bag, then shove the top into it. Tie up the bag and shake it around for a couple minutes, enough time to get the power on all of the spaces it needs to of the chainmail. Once you're done, take it out and shake it off to get rid of the excess powder and ta dah, no more stickyness!
You can opt to leave it like this if you wish but in my opinion its rather difficult to take on and off by slipping it over your head so I opted to do something to help with that.
I installed a zipper down the front, it would not be seen on the cosplay and this way it would be MUCH easier to put on. I also used a Zig-Zag stitch for this to help catch the chainmail underneath and make sure it was fully stitched onto the zipper. For extra measures, you can go over your zig-zag stitch with a stright stitch if you want!
And with that it is done! Hope this tutorial helps you out on your cosplay adventures!
