Knight costume

Or the evolution of a chain maille idea. For this project you will need some patience and at least one soda drinking friend. :)

I wanted to make some chain mailles for my two toddlers, so I started collecting some soda pop tabs about a year before the actual event (yes, it requires some planning, unless you have many soda drinking friends. Or beer drinking friends.) I didn't use all I had since I realised toddlers cannot possibly be comfortable in chain mailles, and the project sliiightly evolved. Here it is, step by step:


Collect soda pop tabs and preprare them for use. They need to have holes on both sides, should be slightly bent in the middle, and cut on one side. Round tabs work best, but if you have the  trapezoid shaped ones, don't worry  - you just need to connect wide sides together and narrow sides together. To illustrate, here how to prepare them:

Once you have the tabs ready, you can weave them in a chain maille. I only wanted  a small rectangular piece to put on the costume, so I ended up doing this:

In the meantime, I prepared a vest:

Here the vest turned into a toddler-friendly chain-maille:

Next, the helmet! I didn't use a sophisticated template, just three cardboard strips, four paper pieces, some staples, spray paint and a feather.

I was out of silver spray paint, but they turned out quite well in gold. To match, some shields:

I thought cardboard swords could be dangerous, so I bought some foam ones. Turns out, they are dangerous too (ouch). The risks of having two knights at home. So we took them to a party instead and let them roam.

Inspired yet? Better start drinking those sodas already :)