Mermaids

Once again I decided to make my girls costumes for Halloween this year. I was out of ideas when it came to princess' so I asked Jocey what she would like to be. She was very insistent that she be a mermaid, and of course Vivian agreed.

All the mermaid costumes you could buy, in my opinion, hardly resembled a mermaid and looked like a regular dress. So to Pinterest I went, but still no one had made anything I particularly liked. I decided to combine a fabric I saw one place, with a tail I saw another, a shell bra that had a dead link on its tutorial, while also adding my own touches.

Materials I used:

2 Nude Dance Leotards

2 yards of two different colored Tulle

1 yard Fish Scale Fabric from Amazon 

1/4 yard Purple Dance Wear Fabric

1 yard Stretchy Purple Sequin material

Some stuffing

Basically I drew my own shells for the bra, sewed right sides together, flipped inside out, stuffed them, sewed them shut and then I hand sewed the lines into the shell bra. After that I attached the bra to the leotards with my machine for duarability and added the sequin material around the back connecting each side of the bra. I cut the leotards in half (horizontally) and serged the edges, cut my mermaid scale fabric, fit it to their waists and sewed it to the leotards. Later I cut the bottom of the scale tail into a triangle and attached straight cut ruffled tulle to the sides of the triangle where I had cut. Last I added tulle to the tops of the tail for a completed look.

The best part is there are no zippers, buttons or snaps, just stretchy goodness. And because they're so stretchy there are no issues with walking or running!

My girls have already played in these and they're in love!