Manhattan Mermaid

Last weekend I took part in the 30th Coney Island Mermaid Parade. So! Much! Fun!

My costume was almost entirely hand made, I mean really, did anyone expect anything less?

First up, despite the general raucousness and nudity that is par for the Mermaid Parade course, I knew I'd be wanting to keep the girls covered. To this end I made a shell bra by sewing braided t-shirt fabric onto padded inserts I'd taken out of a bikini top a while ago. I have a very comical picture of me wearing the underpinnings of the shell bra but I'm going to keep the wider internet from that treasure. Once the underneath construction was complete, I stuck on two shells from Micheal's using double sided carpet tape and a lot of hot glue, then glued on strands of freshwater pearls to twine around the ties.

For a fascinator I made use of an old knitting project that usually hangs out on my aloe plant, the common octopus from Amigurumi Knits.

A hairband, scrap fabric, shells, many sticks of glue and a bit of stiching later....

No mermaid would be complete without a suitably fishy tail. And that tail was a saga unto itself in sewing trial and error. I bought two yards of an amazing two toned fabric stitched into diamonds from a store in the fabric district, and because I wasn't confident in my own non-existant pattern drafting skills, Simplicity 4043 on Ebay. I do not recommend that pattern, except perhaps as a template for the fin because the skirt as drafted in the pattern looks terrible on. There was so much excess fabric caught up in the fold where the tail curls back up towards the wrist, no shaping in the skirt, just.... ugh. For my first attempt at sewing from a paper pattern it left much to be desired.

So with much trepidation I sliced and spliced, altering the angle of the tail so that it extended out from a curved hem, took in about 4" at the hips and added darts at the waist. To stiffen the tail I sewed in a sacrificed wire coat hanger frame, stuffed with some folded up scraps of batting and then shadow quilted both the fin and a triangle down into the tail. Then I sewed just shy of 100 little silver beads around the waist and fin to make it sparkle.

I even made myself a pair of earrings using long ago learned macrame skills, sliver beads, shells and glue. And a trident for my boyfriend out of a broom, cardboard and golden duct tape.

I think I did OK.

;o)