A Fabric Tail of a Different Kind

[Mer-Crazy]

So, most of you here do not know me. Those of you who do, may know that I am not very good at art or making things. This is the reason I buy my tails and accessories over making them (not to mention it's hard to get supplies for things like that Down Under). However I have recently begun a project for someone very important to me, and I decided to document the process here in case anyone thought it was a cool idea and wanted to make one of their own (I am more than happy for people to take the idea and do whatever they want with it, it's not an entirely new concept).

But what is this 'different fabric tail?' I hear you asking. 'What makes it different?' Well it isn't for swimming. I'm sure by now everyone has seen or had a friend show them those crochet tail blanket things all over the interwebs. On the plus side, it's not a crochet tail, because I can't knit. I can, however, sew.

So my master plan is to make a mermaid tail blanket out of polar fleece (very soft and warm and snugly) and give it to this very special person for their birthday (because, luckily enough, their birthday is in winter).

So there's my story and my plan. Photos will come tomorrow morning when the light is better. I look forward to sharing my progress with all of you <3

[OceanWhisper]

Sounds great! It would be awesome if you could get a scale print fleece :D looking forward to the pictures

[Keiris]

That sounds interesting, Mer-Crazy. What a fun gift to give to a friend! Are you going to denote scales in the fleece by sewing them with a metallic thread or actually cut out different cloth scales and sew them or look for scale pattern fabric? I guess the possibilities are endless! ;)

[Mer-Crazy]

For the moment it's just generic fleece fabric (I'm very limited in what I can get where I live(like I was lucky to get orange limited)) in clownfish colours and sewn to the patterns (mostly) of a clownfish. I can sew, but I still have a lot to learn. Since this is my first attempt at something like this I figured I'd stick to something I knew I could manage (not to mention my seeing machine is a dinosaur so it can't do any fancy stitches like scales. Plus it's meant to be a blanket, so comfort and warmth are the top priority here. If I attempt this again then I may get more creative and try new things like that, but for now I'm going to stick to what I know I can do.

[Celaeno]

That sounds super cute! I love clownfish.

[Mer-Crazy]

So here's the fabric I'm hoping to use, it's micro polar fleece, very soft, warm and cuddly, perfect for winter. I wanted to make sure I had enough of it so I ended up getting 1M of the black, 2M of the white and 3M of the orange.
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The first step I did was actually tracing out my Merbella tail out onto a bunch of butcher's paper and then adding in about 8 extra inches on the sides to make it more roomy so that it's more comfortable. The whole thing is about 65 inches from Fluke tip to top hem, so way too large for a normal tail, but since it's a blanket I figured I'd put in some extra room in case they wanted to pull it up higher, though from ankles to top hem it's only about 42 inches, so a lot of it is just fluke space.

I then drew out, roughly where the different sections of the tail would be (the orange and white stripes) I know clownfish have black in their stripes as well, but I was worried adding in the extra stripe may be a bit beyond my skill level right now (since I've never really worked with fleece before I wanted to keep it simpler, to make sure I could do it first, fancier things would have to come next time around) and that the seams may be a bit uncomfortable (again something I'll be testing out with this tail)
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From there I folded the paper tail in half to make sure it was symmetrical when I cut it out. I even thought of a really creative way to add fins in there, and make them little pockets. I then traced each section individually out onto new sheets of paper and added the seam allowance and I ended up with 10 different pieces all together, making sure I marked all of them so I don't get confused.
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That's all I've done for now, today I'm going to be cutting out some, if not all, of the fabric and I'll keep you guy's updated <3

[Celaeno]

This is going to look awesome!

[IllynReaver]

that's going to be cute.

[Mermaid Danielle]

This sounds like it is going to be awesome!

[Mer-Crazy]

All the pieces are cut out. Sewing to come next.
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[Mermaid Olivia!]

So cute! I made a tail blanket sort of like the one you are making, and I love it! Can't wait to see how this turns out!
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[Keiris]

That's going to be really unique!

[OceanWhisper]

awesome!! :D

[Mer-Crazy]

Okay guys, question time: I'm looking at the fabric before I've stitched it and I'm not entirely sold on the colour. Next to the white I am not sure if it looks vibrant enough for a clownfish. So, should I look for a more florescent orange or stick with the colour I have? (I'm not under any time pressure at the moment so I don't mind buying some off the net and waiting for it)

[Mer-Crazy]

So cute! I made a tail blanket sort of like the one you are making, and I love it! Can't wait to see how this turns out!
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Olivia that looks so awesome :) My Fluke isn't nearly as pronounced as that, I think I may take the ankles in just a little and see how that goes.

[OceanWhisper]

could you use *very* watered down fabric paint? like maybe a yellowy tinge would brighten the orange? Just a thought

[Mer-Crazy]

Maybe... but I feel a little worried that even watered-down fabric paint may make it not as soft. I've found some other fabric that is hopefully more florescent, will see what it looks like when it turns up.

[OceanWhisper]

cool :) hope it works out

[Mermaid Olivia!]

Thanks! My feet are really tiny, so it is pretty roomy even though the ankle area looks small. I personally like the orange color you have already- I think it looks like a clownfish! However, if you think you would prefer a brighter shade, I'd say go for it! It is much easier to change the color now since you haven't sewn anything, and if you are going to put all that effort into making such a nice blanket, it should be exactly the way you want it to be. :)

[Cordelia]

I think it looks fine! There are some clown fish that are darker orange.

[Ilyena]

Clown fish have black stripes too. Unsure if you have placed them as the pics on here don't show that. Maybe its the black striping that makes the colours pop.

[Mer-Crazy]

Clown fish have black stripes too. Unsure if you have placed them as the pics on here don't show that. Maybe its the black striping that makes the colours pop.
That is possible. But I don't think my skill level is high enough yet to add the black stripes (because they're so thin) and I'm worried the extra seams may make it less comfortable, so I elected to leave them out. (And I ran out of black fabric haha)

[Ilyena]

Awww, I'm sure you'd do a great job ^_^. Or maybe sew them on top of the orange and white.

Still, I'm sure it will look great once it's done

[WaterDragon]

Could you add the black over the top of the other two colors like a applique? You would have fewer visible seems that way.

[Merman Jamie]

Awesome work so far Crazy. Cant wait to see the finished product

[Mer-Crazy]

Giving everyone a quick update: I am having trouble with the sewing. For some reason (and I have tried a lot of things to get it to work) it keeps skipping stitches on the zig zag stitch, which I need to use because it's so stretchy. Still working on solutions for this though. Weill keep you guys updated :)

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Giving everyone a quick update: I am having trouble with the sewing. For some reason (and I have tried a lot of things to get it to work) it keeps skipping stitches on the zig zag stitch, which I need to use because it's so stretchy. Still working on solutions for this though. Weill keep you guys updated :)

Check the bobbin under the needle. Mine does this when the thread in there gets loose, and it does all kinds of funky "stitches"!

[Mer-Crazy]

Check the bobbin under the needle. Mine does this when the thread in there gets loose, and it does all kinds of funky "stitches"!
What am I checking exactly? Because it was a freshly made bobbin, do I need to adjust the tension?

[Sherielle]

Mine does that when the bobbin hasn't threaded correctly in the machine. If that is fine, then check the tension

[Mer-Crazy]

Yeah I played with both the bobbin tension and the thread tension for a bit yesterday and it got... Better? A little bit maybe? But still having issues. The machine is pretty old though so I'm wondering if that may be the issue. I'm visiting a friend on Sunday and I'm going to take some with me an see if it works on her machine. If not I know that it will do a pretty strong straight stitch on certain settings of the zig zag for some reason on mine so I may just have to settle with that because I'm not really in a place to buy a whole new machine.

[Celaeno]

The machine might just need to be oiled. Most newer machines don't include instructions on that because they want you to take your machine in to the shop to get oiled every six months, but there are lots of tutorials online and videos on youtube specific to various sewing machines that will show you how. When my machine needs to be serviced, it skips stitches and starts sounding like a lawnmower.

[Mer-Crazy]

Haha yeah that sounds about right. I will have to do it myself because they said that the wait for a service at the store near us is like 3 weeks and I kind of need it done by November so that'd only give me a month (if it worked) I guess that's plenty of time but I'd rather not sit around doing nothing. Especially since that may not even fix the problem.

[Mer-Crazy]

Okay so finally got my sewing machine back today. The guy fixed it and told me how to sew the fabric so this project is away once more. So far I have hemmed the top and am working on the fins now.
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[Hollydell]

Awesome! I hope the guy fixed your problems :D

[mollythemermaid]

So, most of you here do not know me. Those of you who do, may know that I am not very good at art or making things. This is the reason I buy my tails and accessories over making them (not to mention it's hard to get supplies for things like that Down Under). However I have recently begun a project for someone very important to me, and I decided to document the process here in case anyone thought it was a cool idea and wanted to make one of their own (I am more than happy for people to take the idea and do whatever they want with it, it's not an entirely new concept).

But what is this 'different fabric tail?' I hear you asking. 'What makes it different?' Well it isn't for swimming. I'm sure by now everyone has seen or had a friend show them those crochet tail blanket things all over the interwebs. On the plus side, it's not a crochet tail, because I can't knit. I can, however, sew.

So my master plan is to make a mermaid tail blanket out of polar fleece (very soft and warm and snugly) and give it to this very special person for their birthday (because, luckily enough, their birthday is in winter).

So there's my story and my plan. Photos will come tomorrow morning when the light is better. I look forward to sharing my progress with all of you <3

I really like the crochet blankets and just got mine off of Amazon. For the fleece kind be careful. Normal fleece gets super hot quick. I really like the Blankie Tails minky fabtric.

I have some in depth reviews if you are still in the market!

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Mermaid Tail Blankets (http://www.everythingmermaid.com/mermaid-tail-blankets/)


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Best Fleece Mermaid Tail Blankets (http://www.everythingmermaid.com/fleece-mermaid-tail-blankets/)
Fleece Mermaid Tail Blanket Review (http://www.everythingmermaid.com/fleece-mermaid-tail-blanket-review/)


Blankie Tail Review (http://www.everythingmermaid.com/blankie-tail-review/)
Mermaid Blankets for Kids -Blankie Tails (http://www.everythingmermaid.com/mermaid-tail-blankets-kids/)


Mermaid Tail Blanket Pattern (http://www.everythingmermaid.com/mermaid-tail-blanket-pattern/)