Fabric Tail Additives?? Is it possible

[MermaidRachelNola]

Hey mers! I'm Mermaid Rachel, I've been here for a while but am SUPER bad at posting often #collegemermaidprobs.
SO I have a purple magictail (fabric) and was thinking it would be nice to add something to it. I ideally would want to add some sort of heel fin, but I also know that area seems to be a bit more sensitive wear wise. Has any added extra things to their fabric tails? And if so how?

Peace and Love
Mermaid Rachel

[Mermaid Nelly]

I've never done it before but a suggestion is just to take more fabric and sew it on? That was it can look flowy and would match texture with your tail? Just a suggestion [emoji5]

[SirenPearls]

35836 I sewed some silicone fins in my magictail :3 it really was very hard sewing it in and out of the water they´re heavy but in the water you don´t feel that :3

[MermaidRachelNola]

Yeah that was what i am thinking I am just a pinch worried about the lyrca material tearing with sewing. :confused:

[MermaidRachelNola]

WOAH! How did you get them sewn on there? and what thread did you use?

[SirenPearls]

yeah I sewed it with an Overlock sewing machine so the stitch is very elastic.. but it was hard to put it together with the silicone >< so I cutted the silicone with a knive and only sewed through the fabric >< argh so difficult to explain it in English xD

[MermaidRachelNola]

lol you can say it in German (I assume thats your native language?) My friend is from germany and can translate :D

[SirenPearls]

I used normal overlock thread and a lot of violence xD
I´ve got a very cheap overlock machine which hasn´t that much power :´D

[MermaidRachelNola]

Ok great!! My grandmother sews for a living and has an AMAZING machine that would probably work! OH MAN so excited to know this could work!!! Ok step one, make silicone fins lol

[SirenPearls]

yeah it´s German xD

Okay also :
ich hab das Silikon mit Pigmenten gemischt und in die Mold gefüllt, dann habe ich direkt in das flüssige Silikon einen Streifen Stoff gelegt, das war aber Stoff ohne Elastizität. Wichtig war, dass der Stoff ein bisschen seitlich wegsteht, so dass die Flosse daran befestigt wurde.
den Stoff hab ich ein bisschen in das Silikon getunkt, damit sich das Silikon mit dem Stoff verbunden hat. Dann habe ich das Silikon nur noch trockenen lassen. Mit einem Cuttermesser eine saubere Kante geschnitten durch das Silikon ( nur das Silikon, nicht durch den Stoff!). Dann hab ich die Seitennähte meiner Flosse aufgetrennt, den Stoffteil der Seitenflosse an die Nahtzugabe der Flosse mit Nadeln geheftet. Dann alles zusammen unter die Overlockmaschine gelegt und dabei das Silikon so weit wir möglich an die Naht gedrückt. Ich weiß nicht ob es Maschinen gibt, die auch durch Silikon kommen, aber meine schafft das definitiv nicht xD
Also sprich ich habe nur durch die Stoffteile genäht. Und ich habe auch jeweils nur eine Flossenhälfte verwendet .. von unten sieht man also noch das Stoffteil. Das Silikon ist so schon ziemlich schwer und hängt durch den elastischen Stoff schnell durch. Unter Wasser bereitet das dann aber eigentlich keine Probleme :)

[SirenPearls]

When you make your silicone fins you have to make sure that they become very thin >,< the weight of the silicone can be very well seen in the lycra XD

[MermaidRachelNola]

Oh okay! that makes sense! Just one question, you didn't open the tail seam right?

[SirenPearls]

No, I had to open the side seam of the tail to sew the fins in. :)

[Mermaid Alea]

Beautiful silicone fin PaperyStar. Are you seeing any issues with the silicone tearing around the sewed area?

[SirenPearls]

nope there weren´t :)
i just took some photos. my fins are nearly 1 cm thick, so I just an "half" fin and on the back you still can see the fabric. so it must be a really really thin fin or a less elastic lycra :)
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[Mermaid Nelly]

35836 I sewed some silicone fins in my magictail :3 it really was very hard sewing it in and out of the water they´re heavy but in the water you don´t feel that :3

THIS LOOKS AWESOME!!!!

[MermaidRachelNola]

Oh sweet!! Thanks so much!! That looks amazing. Ok just ordered the clay I will keep y'all posted on this extra fun adventure! Also papery star I may be asking more questions as I go XD


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[Mermaid Nelly]

Good luck!!!!

[Little_Orca]

I always have extra fins on mine... well, not -always- but most of my tails had. It's pretty simple to do; just like sewing anything else into the tail as they have talked about above. In places where they are more likely to have run-ins with issues (heel fins being stood on in the pool) you may want to reinforce it by sewing over it more than once. Three times usually is a good number for me.

[MermaidRachelNola]

Yeah I was thinking of doing a straight stitch, and a zig zag a little over the edge and then another straight line (like a fake serger stitch)


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[Lili]

Another solution for this, just to reinforce it, you can add a bit of mesh in the silicone because it will be absorbed in it as it cures, and with the rest of the mesh sticking out, just apply some e6000 and glue it to the fabric, you can then go over it with a sewing machine just to give it more support you know, I'm planning on doing this with my future hybrid tail that I'll be starting later in June