Under the Sea Handmade Series - Mermaid Tail

 

 

"Mum, I want the longest mermaid tail that you have ever seen"
this was the request by soon to be Miss 5

 



Right, as much as I would love to deal with the tears as her tail is repeatedly stepped on by the 20 or so 4 & 5 year old excited party guests, I decided to ignore (that seems harsh, but I really think it was a case of mum knows best) her request and suggest instead we could go with the sparkliest tail she has ever seen?? (thankfully, that did the trick).

So on that note, it was on to Pinterest to search for a mermaid tail tutorial.  Out of the many out there, I found this one and loved it http://blog.makezine.com/craft/easy_mermaid_tail_costume/

Pattern Pieces

Next I needed to draw up my pattern pieces using my own daughters measurements and working out roughly how Arwen worked out her measurements in the tutorial.

Do you like the extra scribbles on the pattern pieces? 

Master 22 months  decided he would help me colour them in - he is just so helpful.

All my measurements are based on my daughters waist of 22.5" and I wanted the tail to reach her ankles (waist to ankle measurement was 22"), then I wanted the fin to hang down onto the floor

Supplies

I was lucky enough to have some shiny stretchy fabric in my stash (found at an op shop for $5), but I needed batting, so a trip to Spotlight was needed which is where I found this gorgeous, gorgeous tulle overlay that I knew my daughter would just love.    Now, if this tail was just for their dress up box, then I would have made do with what I already had, but as it was for a special occasion I splashed out and paid the $12 a metre for the overlay and had one very excited little girl when I got home. 

Special Note: see that pen I included in my supplies - it is my new favourite sewing item!   I had heard of a sewline fabric glue pen which I asked about at my local quilting shop.  While they didn't have one in stock, they did have this pen and assured me that it did the same thing - it does, and I love it.  

I used it to hold my overlay to the shiny (very stretchy & movable ) blue fabric - the glue dries clear, doesn't gum up your machine and meant that I only needed to add about 4 pins to the whole thing !

Sewing Instructions:

I followed Arwen's instructions for cutting out the fabric pieces, but to save time I didn't cut out the batting - just left it as rough rectangle.

I then basted my tulle overlay to my tail & fin pieces (one set only) using my wonderful, life changing glue pen and continued on following Arwen's instructions to sew it all together.

When I got to adding the batting, I just sat my pieces on top of the batting and pinned down the whole thing.   I then followed her instructions to sew it and cut off the extra batting afterwards.

Before adding on the waistband, I decided to stuff the fin with some polyfill.  I then hand stitched on the join of the tail to the fin to keep it all in the fin area (you can see a photo of the stuffed fin at the bottom of the page)

 

Because my material was so stretchy & soft, when I got to the waistband I added a light / medium weight fusible interfacing (about 2" Length x the Width of the waistband)  to half of the waistband to give it some strength.  

I also added some embroidered shell's, centered on the back of the waistband. 

Once I finished the changes to the waistband, it was back to Arwan's instructions to finish it off.

The last step of the tutorial is sewing on the Velcro to the waistband which I did and then  decided it needed one last touch, so I embroidered some more shells on some left over fabric, cut them out and hot glued them on to the waistband (I don't believe the hot glue will hold up in the wash, but it's unlikely that the tail will ever get washed so hopefully that won't be a problem :)

So there you have it, hopefully the sparkliest mermaid tail for a very happy little girl.

Coming up next is a quick post on the rest of her outfit and a special post on a very, very large Colossal Squid (that can made with just some felt & a glue gun)