Making my first fabric tail

[Mermaid Arabella]

Just posting some of the pictures from making my first fabric tail! I made the pattern by laying on craft paper in my monofin and tracing the outline. I put that on top of my fabric and pinned all around it. I cut just outside the pins and then sewed just inside the pins, and it fit pretty well for a first go!
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I've taken it for a couple test swims already, where I learned that I need to let out the calves and take in the waist (which I have now done), plus get a sturdier velcro for the fluke closure (which I still need to go buy). I'm still considering possibly painting it, but definitely want to make sure it's just right first.

I got some video that I'm still working on putting together but here's a pretty cool screenshot from it. I'm holding the camera b/c it floats so I need to find some way to anchor/clamp it to get some really good underwater video.
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More to come! :)

[Mermaid Nelly]

Love the color! It's beautiful!

[Merman Sean]

Well done on your first fabric tail, very nice and like the color as well

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[Mermaid Arabella]

Thank you both! I grabbed that fabric for half-off at Hancock Fabrics! :D

[Mermaid Arabella]

Cut out a new tail last night - and of course forgot to take pictures! I'm kinda failing at this "documenting" thing.... V////V

Anyways, I was posting because I cut out a full tail like the one above (in a mint green fabric), but then I also cut out a fluke that I'm going to try to put on my SunTail skin to go with my new monofin. I will definitely get some pictures as I work on that and let everybody know how it turned out! :)

[Mermaid Arabella]

A couple pictures from altering the SunTail skin this weekend to fit over my Hydra monofin:
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I took it for a swim yesterday, and I need to tighten the waist. I always seem to do that - I'm so worried about it being too tight that I don't make it tight enough! :p I'm considering adding a pair of fins where the 2 fabrics meet (b/c I think it looks awful right now - I'm crappy at sewing) but the fin I'd made this weekend didn't come out like I wanted, so I'll try again this week. Photoshoot on Sunday! :D

[Mermaid Summerlilly]

nice!

[Mermaid Arabella]

I posted more in the photoshoot thread (and even more in an album) but here are a couple pictures from last week's creek shoot that show off my tail!
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(My friend was talking about going to get sushi, and her boyfriend said, "This one's already in a net!" so of course, we had to snap a picture :lol:)

[Mermaid Arabella]

I've had a thought for some time that I wanted to turn my first tail (the dark jade one) into a pirate mermaid. I found a black-and-white striped bikini top at the thrift store last weekend, so I decided to go for it! I added some doubloons and pearls to the top side of the fluke this morning - and this is certainly NOT a sneaky way to cover holes and scuffs that have developed! ;) - but I think I want to add some more. I used the whole pack of doubloons, so I'll need more to do the back and could grab extra if I want more on the front too. (Side note: these are plastic coins from the party favor section of Dollar Tree, pack of 30 for $1!)

Safety is sexy:
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Full monofin:
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Close-up of one side:
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What do you guys think? More doubloons and/or pearls?

[PrincessNymphiaoftheSea]

I like the idea of the doubloons :D Like they became a part of the scaling itself :3


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