Medieval cosplay - chainmail

The cosplay industry is growing exponentially in size. Alongside this has come the development of intricate and clever design ideas to add a sense of realism to all costumes. What is so innovative about the cosplay community is the creativity involved in all costume ideas, ranging from the simple to the very unusual. Likewise, the 'do it yourself' mantra present within the community also supports creating costumes and other design ideas that suit a range of budgets.

Depending on the type of cosplay, different techniques and materials may be used to achieve various outcomes. For costumes seeking to replicate heavy items, such as the armour found on medieval clothing, larger high-density foam pieces such as closed-cell polyethylene foam can be placed together to create the desired effect. For more complex designs, there are many different approaches. Some may decide to create basic chain mail or a scale effect using individual threads of foam sheets, placing each piece together. Likewise, the Cricut machine can be used to laser cut certain shapes and patterns, although not all of us may have access to one.

Canadian company Foam Armory has shared its guide on how to use thin foam strips to create an incredibly effective chainmail design. Their innovative technique involves 'knitting' die-cut foam loops together to achieve an industry-standard chainmail effect. The company first developed a perfect pattern for foam-based chainmail by laser cutting a thread of interconnected loops onto a simple foam sheet. Once the shapes were cut out from the sheet, the pieces were then looped together to create chainmail.

With Foam Armory's solution available in North America, in the UK, you also can create the same high-quality yet cost-efficient foam chainmail with Easyfoam. Via our cut to size tool, you can order a very thin low-density foam sheet to then cut into very fine threads in order to weave together and construct a freestyle chainmail design. For something that replicates the knitted chainmail 'loop' style, you can trace out your desired loop thread pattern to size on an A4 sheet of paper, scan it in, and send it to us at Easyfoam so we can replicate your design using die-cut foam. It's as easy as that!

Knitting together foam loops – typically no more than 0.3cm in thickness – is more straightforward than first thought. There are a huge number of ways that foam can be used in costume making, with Plastazote foam typically being the most popular foam for this use.

If you'd like to create themed costumes – such as those for seasonal events – be sure to take a look at our 'cosplay/costumes' blog too.

At Easyfoam, we pride ourselves on offering personalised guidance to all our customers for all queries, large and small. For further information on foam for crafting or costume purposes, please contact our team of experts today.