Over the weekend, my friends and I threw a pre-Halloween party.
We made delicious homemade pizza…
…sewed our mermaid fins (don’t mind my messy sewing desk!)…
and watched the movie Casper … one of my all-time favorite Halloween movies from my childhood!!
I just love the end of the movie, when Casper is allowed to get his body back, for only a few hours. Awww!! If you want a sweet/scary/sad/happy halloween movie for this year’s party…watch it!
(don’t mind my blank walls…still decorating!)
Now, here’s the tutorial for those fins we made….
My friend Ali asked if I would help him sew these mermaid fins. While that video was helpful, I thought if I broke down the steps for you (we did some things slightly different) through pictures, it would expedite the fin-making process :).
- At least 4 different colors of tulle, in various shades of green/aqua/blue. Choose one color to be a silvery-shimmery scale that we’ll put on top (See step #10). You’ll need approximately 1.5-2 yards of tulle per color.
- Elastic, enough to loosely wrap around each ankles, plus 1 inch just in case.
- measure elastic to loosely fit around ankles, overlapping .5 inches
- sew a few short lines on the overlapped area
- depending on what shoe you use, you might need to trim the tulle shorter, but his can be done after you’ve sewn it on.
- on one end of the tulle, grab a square of fabric and pinch it together so it bunches
- sew onto elastic. ** It’s important to sew each piece on individually, instead of just sewing a straight line around the elastic, as doing so will not allow the elastic to stretch.**
- don’t worry about being perfect. You just want it to have volume so it flairs out (see picture above) instead of lying flat
- repeat, leaving a small gap between bunches on the elastic, for other colors to be sewn on
- repeat steps 4-6 until all the tulle is sewn on, and looks like this (see pic below)
- trim off any excess thread
10. measure the length of your silvery tulle to match the length your fin, cut the silver tulle into various “tear-drop” sizes (these will be your “scales”), and sew as a top layer to your fins, spacing them slightly so you can see the shades of the other colors peeking through:
There you go! Shimmery, scale-y fins for your mermaid costume. More pictures to come, after we wear our costumes to a friends haunting Halloween party next weekend …!
hugs, hanalei.
5 comments
This was fun let’s do it again but let’s make a shirt for me lol
just a shirt? I think we can get a little more creative…
You guys have too much fun. Can’t wait to see Ali in his full merman garb, on a rock in chris’ backyard, near the waterfall, and singing like Ariel (or Ali-iel)…
Hahaha that’s exactly what Ali envisions!!
I think it’s time we made a Ho-bag