Chain Maile Top

The chain maile top was the hardest part of the chain maile by far. I started out by making a front and a back, with two pieces that draped over the shoulders. That was too much, so we ended up with just the shoulder pieces.

I also made two sleeves. I had to split the sleeves on the bottom, otherwise I couldn't get the top to connect with the shoulder pieces - it was too tight.

This was just so hard that I ended up not finishing until halfway through the day on Sunday at Dragon*Con!

So here's what I ended up doing: the sleeves are attached until about three inches below the top, then the top was spread out and woven into the shoulder pieces. This meant that the maile was essentially a teeny tiny shirt.

This was too hard to get over my head, so I had to split it down the front and then weave myself in. (The accompanying picture reflects that - it was a rush job, and since most of that is covered by either the collar or the corset anyway, I figured it didn't matter.)

I know that in the future I will have to add more rings to the front of the shirt. The front was smaller than the back (probably because my chest takes up more room than my back) and was pulling my shoulders forward, causing me to be in excruciating pain after an hour or so. (Once the maile was off, the pain was gone, with no lingering effects.)

I am actually going to remake all of the chain maile with smaller rings, now that I'm proficient at it. I will also make it so that it either weaves up the back or attaches with some kind of silver thread. That is a project for the future, though! Gotta still figure out how to fix those collars, too!

Here is the chain maile top:



And here is Matt sitting amongst all the different pieces of the chain maile we were working with to try to make the top!