I did something similar recently for another samurai helmet. What I did is just making a couple of rings as the laces and then I think I placed them manually (which was pretty masochistic by my part) with some metal pieces to hide the clipping a bit. In your case since you are trying to create a lot more laces I would…
I'm doing a samurai helmet, its taking a lot longer than expected as the helmet has a complicated pattern of lacing. the photo examples supplied are one of many types of lacing found, you can ignore the laquering on the armour, I've already worked out how to do that. whats Im having trouble with is working out the best way…