Pattern by :Karl

This pattern took me months to figure out. But all the time spent was well worth the effort! Especially when I saw Kate's face when she finally got to try the finished article on.

The bra is made out of 10 mm o/d (outside diameter) rings made from 1.5 mm diameter wire. The metal is nickle plated mild steel.

So how did I make it?

(a) Make two cups using the method shown on this page :

Here is my reconstruction of Mr R. Menard's page. Mail Coif HCP Helps Design Chainmail Headgear Note : This is not my work but a reconstruction from a printed copy of the page that used to be at www.mich.com/~rmenard/cmail.htm How do you design chain mail so that it fits on your head? Flat chainmail is easy, just use the 4 in 1 pattern. But if you use the flat 4 in 1 for your head, the the sides will not hang right all the way around. For a headpiece you need to form each new row into a circle. To do this we can borrow clever ideas from hexagonal closest packing. HCP is a way to tile with circles. row links needed 1 1 2 6 3 12 4 12 5 18 6 18 7 24 Every other row is 6 links larger than the preceding row. Rings one and two -top left and center Start with one link, put six links though it. Ring three - top right Add two links to every link of row two Ring four - bottom left Join every pair with one link (12 links needed). Ring five - bottom right There are 12 places for rings and the next row needs 18, and increase of 6, so every other link gets two and the every other gets one Ring Six Join every pair (18 links needed). Ring seven - second below, left Add 2 rings to the corners, all the other rings get one (24 links needed). (I tried a 1 6 6 12 12... pattern, but it came out too pointy.) Keep adding 6 extra links every other row until the circle is big enough to cover the top of your head. These 6 extra links always go on the 'corners'. Then work with the same number of links until you get to your eyebrows. Leave an opening for your face and work down to your chin. The first row below your chin should have the same number of links as the eyebrow row. For the shoulder drape two 'points' should go on your shoulders, two in back, and two in front. The top of the face opening is left square while the bottom corners are filled in on a diagonal. Chainmail will hang either wide and stiff or tight. Hold up a piece, then rotate it 90 degrees, there will be a noticeable difference. I'm sure there are some fancy French words for this. These instructions will produce a coif that will hang all the way around in the tight direction.

I used this pattern as you end up with a hexagonal cup and having straight lines to work with at the edges made the rest so much easier. Keep expanding and fitting the cups until the woman is happy with the coverage.

(b) Join the two cups using a standard 4-in-1 triangle. (first place that the straight edges came in handy!

(c) The size of the shoulder straps will depend on how large the woman's breasts are. The straps start off as wide as the "straight edge" then I reduced them one ring every 3 rows until they were ten rings wide. The chest straps were done in the same way.

(d) The back "strap" is a standard piece of 4-in-1 maille. It was made so that it fitted comfortably between the shoulder blades, no matter how the arms were moved

(e) The final step is the fitting of the garment. This is where expanded rows are added to the "armpit"  sides of the cup to give the woman the level of coverage she is comfortable with.

I know that this is not a detailed row by row pattern, but given the diversity of what you will be working with, no such pattern exists! But given these basic instructions and ten to twenty hours of knitting & fitting, you should end up with a product you are happy with.

If anyone does find this pattern useful, or need further help, then e-mail me and I will do all that I can. If you live in Melbourne Australia and want one made then you are looking at approximately $450.