How many of you have a child that likes to pretend they are whimsical creatures? A few months ago, this little girl and I were Facetiming and she asked me to please make her a mermaid costume for her birthday. I can never turn down such a request-- especially from a grandchild. So I whipped out my favorite mermaid pattern and got to work!
When I was visiting her family in Australia, they took me to the beach for several days and I had a chance to photograph her as Seaena the mermaid. She made-up a story of her life off the coast of Australia and how she and her mermaid baby liked to sit on the rocks and sunbathe.
It's always nice to have a fun story to go along with your costume. Such imaginations!
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Butterick #5597, I liked the top of this mermaid pattern. I used the pattern piece to make the scallop shells-- only my granddaughter wanted orange shells, so these were made out of an orange taffeta. I also liked the idea of sewing these onto a ready made, nude, long sleeve leotard.
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To make the mermaid skirt, I used the pattern from Simplicity #8198. The spandex fabric I used had wonderful fish looking scales. It was really easy to sew on. I purchased my fabrics and the leotard from Onstage Dancewear. They are a family owned dance store that custom makes dance outfits. They have an amazing assortment of fabrics for costumes.
To make the crown, I used some ivory lace that I already had. I sewed it together to form a circle. Then with hot glue, I added seashells of various sizes. The final touch was to hand sew a few pearl-looking beads onto the lace.
With the leftover fabric, I surprised my granddaughter and made her a costume for her American Girl doll. I had plenty of fabric leftover to make three more additional doll mermaid costumes.
Here's a close-up of the doll's mermaid crown, which looks very similar to the child's crown. The only difference was I used the smaller shells on the doll crown.
xoxo Grandma
1 comment:
so cute
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