Stretching Chainmail

   As you can see by the picture at the left, chainmaille will only stretch effectively in one direction. While it stretches slightly the other way it is negligible. Later, I'll show you how to use this to your advantage.

Linking Chains

   By the time you get to this step you should have several 'fives' built. For this example, get five of them and lay them out in front of you. If you hold up your '5' by two of the adjacent white rings, you will notice that they lay flat against each other. Link a single ring(blue) through the two adjacent white rings and attach the blue ring to two adjacent rings on another '5'. This will be the start of your chain.
   Take another single ring and attach that to one end of your chain, be sure to link it through two adjacent white rings that are only linked through only one other ring(gray). As always, make sure that your rings are butting together tightly. This will save you a lot of repair work when you get the chance to use your chainmaille.
   Continue to add '5's in the same manner until you have a chain long enough for the application you are using it for. For example, if you were making a chainmaille shirt, you might hang the chain over your shoulder to get the correct length.