How skin tight should a silicone tail be?

[MermaidIndie]

Hi all, so I'm in the process of making an individual scale tail and as I'm coming down to pinning on scales I'm considering just how much stretch power mesh actually has. Right now it fits me perfectly but I can easily spread my knees inches apart, I considered taking the whole thing in an inch or two but worry that once it's all siliconed together I'll lose stretch. Does anyone have any suggestions on how tight I should make it?


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[mermaidrobynn]

I think that once the silicone is over it it'll be quite a lot stiffer but maybe you should make a small test sheet?

[Freshwater_Nim]

Make it properly tight! Mine is just a tiny bit loose around the knees and ankles and I regret it to no end! As it makes annoying folds in certain positions that are really not pretty.

[PearlieMae]

Make it snug, but not super tight - especially around the ankles, otherwise it will be very hard to get into. Powermesh stretches like crazy, so don't worry about that being loose, once it's embedded in the silicone, its stretch isn't really a concern.

Make a couple rows of test scales over powermesh to fit around your knees, and another around your ankles, and try it on and see how far you can spread. That will give you an idea of how much stretch the silicone has and how tight you should make that area.

[Merman Storm]

A good way to frame this question is to use the concept of "ease". This is a garment term.
Say you have a body measurement of 20 inches. If you use 20 inches of fabric (plus whatever extra is needed for seams) then the garment will just touch the body, with neither slack or compression. If you had 22 inches of fabric, then there would be 2 inches of slack, which is 10% of the measurement. You have 10% ease.
Now say you use a stretch fabric, and use only 18 inches of it. It needs to stretch 2 inches, which means you have 10% negative ease.

So, a good way to frame the OPs question: What is the proper amount of negative ease to build into a tail, and how does that vary from ankle to waist?

I don't know the answer. My guess is the best way to answer this question is for those who have made tails to measure what they ended up with, after adjustments for fit, and compare it to their measurements. I think a table of the amount of negative ease at various points along the length of the tail would be a fantastic resource to tail makers.

For fabric tails, I have found you want 15% to 25% negative ease, higher at the waist.

[MermaidIndie]

All great ideas!! Thanks guys! I'll keep you updated! I'm so close to being done I can almost taste that salt water!


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