Recycle Warrior Plastic Chain Mail

When I was in 4th Grade, my mom and I made a 'Recycle Warrior' Halloween costume for me. For years and years she had been saving the plastic tops off of our milk containers. As an avid milky-coffee drinker, my mom goes through a lot of milk and my dad and I tend to keep pace. The result of years of saving plastic milk jug caps and a few days of work, was a plastic chain mail tabard to rival all other plastic chain mail!

So, here's my recreation of the methods we used to make this crazy costume.

Let me be upfront and say that this one is gonna take some planning or at least some clever scavenging. You're gonna need to spend some a lot of time saving your milk tops or put out a plea on your local Craigslist or Buy Nothing group. Unless you are like my mom, in which case you already have a bucket of these things.

Once you have a hefty pile of soon-to-be reused plastic disks, let's begin!

Supplies:

• 300+ plastic milk jug tops (any shape or kind works, but consistency is helpful, if not required)
• 300+ twist ties (optional)
• Thick thread or twine

Tools:

• Awl or similarly pointy tool
• Large sewing needle
• Cutting mat or other protected surface

First, you are going to want to make your pattern to determine exactly how many tops you need and to make sure you make the right size sections of 'chain mail'.

This version was made for a 9 year old, so it is a bit small if you're aiming for an adult sized costume. We made it flat, then flopped it over my head and tied the edges together with a bit of twine. For ours we used 203 tops for the main body and an additional 100 or so for the 'fringe' at the bottom (not included in the pattern picture).

I suggest writing down your pattern on a piece of paper and checking off sections as you complete them. This is the best way to make sure you don't repeat work and don't miss any sections.

Steps to make your own pattern:

1. Measure around waist
2. Measure from waist in back up over shoulder to where the mail will end in the front
3. Measure diameter of your milk caps
4. Add a few inches (4-6 inches) to body measurements. Believe me, you do not want this to be skin tight... it's not the world's most comfy garment
5. Divide body measurements by milk cap measurement

Example from my costume:

• Waist (W) = 16"
• Waist to Shoulder to Waist (WSW) = 23"
• Milk Cap (C) diameter = 1"
• W + 4 = 20"
• WSW + 4 = 27"
• W/C = 20"/1" = 20 total milk caps (9 in front panel, 11 in back panel)
• WSW/C = 27"/1" = 27 total milk caps from front hem to back hem

Now you can start poking holes in the tops.

I advise preparing a whole lot of the tops before you start stringing them together because it will be annoying to have to stop once you get in the groove of stringing them.

Carefully poke the awl through the edge of your top. In my case, I went from inside to outside so that threading the twist ties in the same direction would be easier. If you want to see the labels, then go the opposite way so that in the next step, it is easiest to string the twist ties in that direction.

We did 4 holes for each top, essentially at the 4 cardinal directions. While you may not need all 4 holes in each, being prepared will make your life a whole lot easier in the next step.

While this step could be skipped, I think it gives a nice look to the finished product and gives you an excuse to use all those left over twist ties you have, of course, saved from bread over many years.

Following the way you made the hole is going to be easier than trying to push the twist tie in backwards through an out-facing hole.

Here is where your pattern comes in handy. You'll want to follow the requirements of your pattern to make sure you're getting all the shapes you need.

You could start with a bunch of rows, then attach them all together, or you could just build up your overall shape in an amorphous way. Anything goes as long as you follow your pattern.

This part, we learned the hard way. After twist tying everything together, we thought we were done. Unfortunately, some of the ties became untwisted while I was wearing the costume.

So, we sewed in reinforcements!

Using your thick thread or twine and sewing needle, carefully sew through the holes created for your twist ties, following the path of the ties. This doesn't have to be especially tight, just enough that the ties themselves aren't holding all of the weight, and if they come untied, the costume still stays mostly intact.

If you skipped the twist ties: just sew it all together now. However, to do this, you need to sew everything twice, once from inside to outside, and then outside to inside in the same hole. This is the best way to keep the whole structure from collapsing in on itself.

Okay, 300 is maybe a bit of an exaggeration, since my example photos have 6 pieces in them, so really it's 'repeat 50 more times!' but you get the point. You'll need patience and some attention to detail to make sure you are making the pieces you actually need for the pattern, but you've got this!

Note: At some point the milk we drank stopped having a 'pop top' and starting having a screw top. The screw tops we used for the fringe at the bottom of the mail. These kind of tops are a bit tougher, so will require a bit more force when you're pushing through with the awl, however, there's no reason not to use them for the whole thing if that's what you have access to.

Now that you have your chain mail, you are most of the way to your Recycled Warrior costume.

Throw on some fun colorful clothes (funky socks encouraged) and find whatever random trash or recyclable materials you have lying around to make a fun hat, sword, shield, or whatever you can imagine. Just don't buy anything new for this part, that sort of defeats the purpose!

Note: We used bubble wrap and other packing materials along with Styrofoam meat trays to make the hat and shield. For the hat, we mounted stuff on a bicycle helmet (the chin strap was useful for keeping the top-heavy monstrosity on my head). If you happen to have one lying around, perhaps use a helmet that is retired as a safety device after it took a hit and cracked in half when you fell off your bike that one time...

If you have questions about accessorizing, feel free to ask in the comments.

Now you get to wear your costume with pride and purpose. Go forth and spread the message of "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle"

Be sure to thank your neighbors for giving you their milk tops if that's how you managed to have enough to get to this point.

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Thank you for reading. Happy recycling and Happy Halloween!