Chainmail is one of the most interesting materials around and lends itself perfectly to make glamorous fashion items. There are many ways it can be made quite simply to the very intricate and iconic Whiting and Davis style handbags and shirts, made of fine gold mesh linked perfectly together. I saw this pop tab chainmail tutorial on Youtube and there was no question that I needed to make this, it was so cheap and for me, it was a good way to practice before I went on to invest in a more expensive material to make the real chainmail of my dreams. My neighbor was really into recycling so he had many cans he let me salvage the tabs off of, so I got started by gathering just a minimal amount of tools to do this project.
Materials:
- Wire Cutters (side cutters)
- Needle Nose Plyers
- Pop Tabs
- Twisty Tie
- A Pencil
- A Staple Remover
Directions:
First, prepare all your pop tabs by bending them using your staple puller, (this is really easy and shown exactly step by step in the video).
Then cut the top of each of your pop tabs with your wire cutter to slip the pop tabs onto each other, then slip them over and under in this pattern here and this will be your basic start pattern, you will then just continue to fasten them together and keep moving outward, making the chainmail as big as you want.
Then watch your chainmail grow as you go. You can tie twist ties at the top to make your chainmail more uniform but this is completely optional.
This is such a fun project I really had a blast doing this!
How To Make Pop Tab Chainmail
