This year my little girl decided she wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween. I'm not quite sure how we finally settled on mermaid - it was something different everyday- cat, witch, whale, rock star, mermaid. But, boy am I glad she decided on mermaid because I had a great idea on how to make the fins.
Before I started, I had three "musts" going into the creation of this mermaid costume:
- I wanted it to be comfortable for her to walk in it. There are a ton of mermaid skirt costumes out there, but I didn't want my three-year-old to have to walk around in a maxi dress all night long.
- The costume had to be something she could put on herself when she wanted to use it for future dress-up play.
- I didn't want to spend more than $5.
Want to see how I did it?
For the fabric, I headed to my local thrift store to see if I could score some green sheets. Lucky me, they had the perfect shade of green and a purple one I thought would work great for the sea shell bra. Total spent: $4.
Step One: I rolled out some wrapping paper and made a pattern for the tail with a pair of her pants as a guide. A little below the knee, I made the tail's fin.
Step Two: I cut out four tail pattern pieces out of the green fabric.
Step Three: I cut two pieces of batting (had on hand) in the shape of my fin.
Step Four: I placed two fin pieces right sides together with the batting on top and sewed it up, leaving a small opening on the side to turn right side out. Repeat for your second fin.
Step Five: I top stitched around the edges to sew up the hole and give it a finished edge.
Step Six: Quilt your fin. I found a curvy stitch on my machine, set it to the largest size it would go and then stitched straight across my fin.
Step Seven: I simply sewed an elastic band that fit my daughter's waist to both fin pieces. I didn't make a casing or bother to cover the elastic at all. It is a costume after all!
Step Eight: I sewed the sides up from about her bum up to the waist band to give the appearance of a fin, but still allowing her to walk.
Step Nine: I made the sea shell bra by cutting out two seashell shapes (with my
Cricut) and sewing them over the cups of an old sports bra (fit to her size). I also covered the bra's elastic bottom with matching green fabric.
Step Ten: For finishing touches, I made a little purple belt and a seashell hair clip!
She had a blast in her costume and throughout trick-or-treating, she sang (her own versions) of Ariel's song:
Up where they walk, up where they run
Up where they stay all day in the sun
Wanderin' free - wish I could be
Part of that world
Happy (late) Halloween!