Halloween Costumes 2012: Baby Mermaid

I have been working on a couple of Halloween costumes!  Costumes are probably my favorite things to sew.  I love the fantasy of costumes and it is fun to make something a little over the top.

I have been planning on making my daughter a mermaid for Halloween before she was even born.  I have loved mermaids since I was a kid, probably since I first saw The Little Mermaid.  And she makes the perfect baby mermaid.  Since she is not walking or crawling yet she doesn't really need her legs, and she quite likes being snuggled up in this little bunting costume!

This little girl is wiggly these days, I had a hard time getting her to lay still long enough to get a shot of her scaly tail.

The green satin was stuff I had in my stash, it was from dresses my nieces wore at our wedding.  The elastic and pearls for her headband I had already too.  So the only thing I had to buy was the purple satin and the iridescent stuff I used at the waist, and I had a coupon for JoAnn's.  That means this whole costume cost me a whopping $2.60!

I don't have a full tutorial for this (I figured there weren't a whole lot of people out there looking to make a baby mermaid costume).  Honestly, I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants when I made this so I am not even sure I could make a full tutorial!  But I do have some pictures and a quick "here's how I did it" if you are interested.  

First I measured my girl to decide how big my tail needed to be.  I made it bigger than I thought it needed to be and it's a good thing I did, it fits her like a glove!  Remember, it is easier to make things smaller than bigger.

Then I drew my tail (I drew it right on the fabric) and cut out two of them.

Then to make the scales, I cut some 3" strips of the same fabric that were wider than my tail.

I made a scale template out of paper, and used it to cut scales in my strips

Then I used stitch witchery, an iron on adhesive, to attach my scales to my tail.  First I ironed it to my scales.

Then I peeled of the paper and ironed the scales to the tail starting at the bottom and working my way up.

The scales do fray a bit on the edges, but it isn't too bad since most of the scale is cut on the bias.  Plus I figured she would only wear this once so it didn't have to hold up too long.

Next I cut the purple for the top.  I cut the top of my tails and the bottom of the tops with the same V.  I added the iridescent stuff to the tail then sewed the tails to the tops.

Then I cut the top corners of the purple for her arms.  And I serged the top edge.

I folded down the top made a casing for some 1/4' elastic.

I didn't take a picture of this step, but next I mad some double fold bias tape for the straps.  I sewed it along the curves of the arm holes.  I added snaps to the top of the straps so they open up for the costume to slip on.  Here is a picture of the straps on the finished costume.

Finally, I put my two mermaid halves right sides together and sewed them around the edge.  Turned it right side out and TA-DAA, a baby mermaid costume!