So after Katie got her pink Ariel dress for Christmas 2011 she still wanted a green tail and purple bra for birthday. We did try to persuade her that it still wasn't age appropriate (to be fair, I'm not sure when it would be), but she wasn't having any of it. She was at this point obsessed with 'The Little Mermaid'. I'm fairly certain that's what she wanted to be when she grows up. Not much has changed mind you. In the end I caved. You can't really argue with an almost 5 year old about princess costumes. It was obvious that she wasn't going to stop asking until she got one. I was just going to have to bite the bullet.
It was around this time that we found out her plans for her tail and bra. She wanted to wear them in the bath! I assume she was going to splash around a bit too. Funny as the idea was, we did have to tell her that even if she did get a mermaid tail (and bra) she wouldn't be allowed to wear it in the bath. This caused not a little consternation. After a lot of thought and soul searching (all of about 2 seconds) she decided that she could live with that. A green tail and purple bra it was.
How to make a mermaid's tail? I had no idea. By this point I thought I could probably tackle most princess dresses, but a tail was something else entirely. I couldn't use faithful Simplicity 2817. I did come across a few mermaid type patterns, but most of them involved a long, tight skirt flared at the bottom rather than an actual tail. Luckily I found this
The tail part looked great, but I could imaging Katie's reaction if I tried to make her one of the tops. I know, they're much more suitable for a 5 year old, but she wanted a bra. Unfortunately you don't find many bra/shell top patterns for children. I was going to have to wing it with that one.
The tail I just made from the usual crepes backed satin but I overlaid it with some green net type stuff with sequins. The fin of the tail has wadding in between the top and bottom layers. The swirl design is then quilted through the layers and the sequins are sewn on top. I'm no good at sewing sequins on. When they're in a long strip I just can't seem to stop them falling off the thread. I've tried knotting the ends of the thread, gluing the threads, tucking the ends under and sewing, all to no avail. If anyone has any top tips I'd love to hear them. I think the only change I made to the tail pattern was I didn't put a zip in the waistband. There seemed to be enough stretch with just the elastic.
For the bra I just made it up as I went along. I had no idea if it would work or not. I made shell-shaped pieces (try saying that 7 times fast!) out of crepe backed satin and used wadding and sequins like on the tail. For the straps I made long tubes of fabric and threaded elastic through them. The only problem was figuring out how to attach the shoulder straps to the bodice strap and still being able to stretch in all directions. In the end I just looped the shoulder straps over the bodice strap and sewed them back on themselves. This means they can move around on the bodice strap which is what I wanted.
So here she is. Our Little Mermaid. I'm having the same problems as before with editing the photos I think it's because they were taken on a phone, so I'm afraid you're just going to have to put up with in their uncropped state. You will note that Katie/Ariel is posing on her 'rock'. Also known as a foot stool. She refuses to walk when wearing the tail. There is an opening down one side to stick your legs through and a loop to hold it up with. Katie's comment when she saw the opening was "Can you not just put a zip in it so I'm like a real mermaid?" Er, no Katie, it doesn't quite work like that.
I think overall she was pleased with the outfit. Even if we wouldn't let her in the bath with it on.
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