Creating Bethany Hawke's Chain Mail

This particular project caused me a massive amount of pain and suffering, and I, more than likely, am going to try doing it again because I enjoy torturing myself and  still have a huge amount of metal wire leftover.
On  serious note though, go for the chain mail lookalike or ready made links options if you're not into having your hands blister and pain from cutting them yourself. Curse these frail and delicate fingers.
It did take me a few failed attempts and a couple of days of self reflection before I found my method to keep track of which rings to link. So play around with it until you figure out your method. Every ring in your mail will need to joined to four other rings in order for this pattern to work out.
My words of advice for this project would probably be to close the ends of the each ring  once you're done with its linking somehow because they do find a way of coming undone. Also, if you have have a big pandonckadonck, you might want to make the back piece a bit longer than the front one so that they don't look uneven when you wear it.
So, if you have set your mind to travelling this dark and dangerous path this is how I managed to create it.

Materials Required

Galvinised Wire 1.60mm x 5kg (317m)

4x Leather Straps
Side Cutters and Needle Nose Pliers

Step 1

Twirl a piece of your wire around a pole of your size choice to create a slinky. I used a garden rake's handle.

Once your done twirling, slide it off of the pole and use your side cutters to cut out each ring. Make sure the wire's cut end touches the back of your cutter in order to make sure you are cutting full moons which will more or less equal in size.

Step 2

Take five rings; link them so that one ring will have four rings attached to it. Close the ends of all five rings using your needle nose pliers, then use a strong adhesive to close the links to keeps them from coming undone later on.
Spread the linked ring out like a four petaled flower.
Repeat this step three more times and line your metal flowers into 2 rows of two.

Step 3

This is were the process will get a little complicated, so keep your elf eyes sharp and your ring formation neat. I preferred using a Down, Side, Up, Side, Down directional pattern as indicated by the arrows in the picture below.

Using five more rings, link the Ring A to rings 1, 3, 4 and 5;
Link Ring B to Rings 5, 6, 8 and 7;
Link Ring C to Rings 5, 7, 10 and 3;
Link Ring D to Rings 2, 3, 10 and 11;
And finally, link Ring E to Rings 12, 10, 7 and 9; to make the chain square on the right side of the picture.
Confusing right? Take a few days off to rest your hands, find inner harmony and then repeat three more times.

Step 4

Line up all four chain mail squares into 2 rows of two.
Using 3 more rings, link Ring A to Ring 1, 2, 3, and 4;
Link Ring B to Rings 4, 3, 6 and 5;
And finally, link Ring C to Rings 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Repeat with your other pair of chain mail squares.

Step 5

At this point you should have settled into your method. We will now join our two chain mail rectangle to make a bigger square.




Link Ring A to Rings 1, 2, 10 and 9;
Link Ring B to Rings 2, 3, 11 and 10;
Link Rings C to Rings 3, 4, 12 and 11;
Link Rings D to Rings 4, 5, 13 and 12;
Ling Rings E to Rings 5, 6, 14 and 13;
Link Rings F to Rings 6, 7, 15 and 14;
And finally, link Rings 7, 8, 16 and 15.
Repeat Steps 1 to 5 five more times.

Step 6

Line up your six squares in 2 rows of two and then repeat Steps 4 to 5 to make a longer rectangle. 
At this length, and you're my size, the chain mail could cover the length between your chest and knees. 
Repeat the process to create the back half, adding two more squares in Step 5 if necessary.
Once you're done with both the front and back halves, you can suture yourself into the chain mail on your event using the leather straps, like I did; or you can link the two halves, thread the two strap though for aesthetic purposes and find a way to wriggle into the mail when your ready to wear it.