Made myself a (fabric) tail today!

[PearlieMae]

Just about to go jump in a lake and try her out! That's Moochie, checking it out.http://flickr.com/photos/oldhamedia/9534437074/

[Ashe]

Wow, that is so pretty! Where did you find that fabric???

[Anahita]

Oh my god! The fabric! I'm in love with it!

[Miyu]

Ooh, I like that ombre :) And cute kitty! Like a bigger version of my Gingy <3

[ShyMer]

That fabric is gorgeous. It's lovely, even as a basic spandex tail.

[PearlieMae]

Ahhhhhhhhh....just got back in, 3 miles around the lake at sunset...what a nice swim! A few barbecue goers said 'look! A mermaid!" But all my neighbors know I swim in my monofin, so they weren't suprised at all.

Swims really nice, but it is very thin spandex, almost lingerie weight, so if I came up out of the water at all, I would get some air bubbles in it...but they squeezed out at the end out my fluke and it sounded like a dolphin surfacing! Hahaha!

I saw the fabric at my local fabric warehouse outlet and snapped it up! It's hard to see, but there are dark blue glitter spots in the lighter part of the ombre. I might accentuate those with blue sequins. unfortunately, the place sells fabric remnants, so I don't know if there is, or ever will be, any more. Didn't take very much fabric to make at all!

Can't wait to swim in it in the daytime!

Thanks, everyone! (I tried to upload the file here, but it wouldn't work from my phone.)

[Miyu]

Ooh, you used thin fabric as well? I wish to know more, as I have quite a lot of extremely mermaid-friendly (but not-exactly-swimwear-material) spandex material laying around. I was considering making a liner of some sort, and wearing tights underneath, to alleviate some of the anatomy-showing I expect with this thin fabric.

How did you feel like it swam? Was it super-clingy? I'm curious about the material :P

It's just gorgeous, I wish I could see the sparklies though XD I guess there's a reason you always gotta go over-the-top on stage, to really be seen from a distance haha... Well at least you know the tail will be OOAK because there isn't any more fabric! LOL... However, I recently discovered that ombre dying fabric is so much easier than I thought, and I'd love to experiment with colours/fabric to get somewhat of the same effect. (Also, isn't it awesome how little fabric a tail requires when compared to pretty much any other clothing?)

[PearlieMae]

It's really thin, thinking of making a nude spandex sheath to wear under it, it is very clingy. But I did sew it very snug. I didn't want it bagging anywhere. The fluke is all sewn in as well, all hand sewn. My machines are wonky and I hate sewing stretchy stuff on machine. I have some very wide elastic in the waist - maybe two inch wide elastic. The seam goes down the center back.

Since the monofin is sewn in, I may just make some more sheath-like tails that slip over my legs and sew some very small brass hooks into the fabric over the fluke, and sew some fluttery chiffon to flow past the fluke. Does that make sense?

[Miyu]

Haha, glad to hear that you're thinking along the same lines as me on the lining, maybe that means it can work :D I did think that with thin fabric, snug would be better :) We don't want baggy tails!

You had only one seam?!? How did you do that?!? :O_o:

That makes sense, so like you could slip on extra bits to have a "new" tail while not having to rip the monofin out? Although I would think lots of snaps might be better than hooks, Caltuna uses snaps in her detachable flukes on her mer/snake tails. I love the look of chiffon/voile fins, they look so pretty! Stella the Siren did some pretty awesome things with sheer fabric.

[PearlieMae]

It's basically a tapered tube. I made sure the fabric went around my waist, enclosed my elastic in a simple casing and then pinned it at my ankles. I basted from the waist to the ankle. Slipped in the fin and sewed it all together! I pulled the fabric snug as I sewed for a smooth fit.

[PearlieMae]

Here is a photo before my swim...(same pic as in above link)

13699

[Mermaid Cascada]

Pretty!

[Mermaid Tasia]

I am trying to upload the fabric tail I made but I am not sure if it is working, but you can see it in my profile pic!

13707

[Miyu]

a tapered tube, that makes so much sense... :doh:

[PearlieMae]

I am trying to upload the fabric tail I made but I am not sure if it is working, but you can see it in my profile pic!

13707

That's a beautiful tail! You look great!

[PearlieMae]

a tapered tube, that makes so much sense... :doh:

Hahaha! Sometimes the simplest solutions evade us! I just didn't feel like sewing down two sides, and voila!

[PearlieMae]

Pretty!



Thank you, Cascada !

[Miyu]

That makes a lot of sense, and I wanted a dorsal fin and not side fins anyways :D Yay for strategically-placed seams!

That also means a lot less sewing, because I'm still too afraid to bust out my sewing machine, so hand-sewing it is...

[PearlieMae]

What I do for the back seam is four or five snug, but not tight, stitches, each stitch rolling over the raw edges like a rolling hem stitch, and the fifth stitch is knotted, so ohn case you do pull on it too roughly and break the thread, it won't unravel more than one set of stitches...about an inch and a half. Better a small hole than the entire back seam opening up. I do a blind hem stitch on the casing for the elastic in the waist and throw a few stitches into the elastic around the waistline to keep it from rolling inside.

[MermaidIsis]

Wow! Thats amazing! You did some great sewing around the monofin. May i ask which one you used? I originally assumed the rapid, but i dont see the supporters through the fabric. Did you cut them?

[Miyu]

Oh my goodness you are so helpful! Thank you so much for all the tips. I've never had to try to hide seams so hard before!

[PearlieMae]

Wow! Thats amazing! You did some great sewing around the monofin. May i ask which one you used? I originally assumed the rapid, but i dont see the supporters through the fabric. Did you cut them?

Thanks!

It is the Rapid, and you can see the ribs once it's in the water. I may cut them and reshape it soon. It's broken in a couple of stress areas, and I've epoxied styrene pieces over the breaks, so I may cut the ribs down some as well, but I may leave them to help hold silicone when I decide to experiment with that.

[Mermaid Danielle]

Beautiful!

[MermaidIsis]

Ah. That makes sense. Although, i wouldn't recommend cutting them. They're placed on the monofin to addd stiffness in the parts that need to be stiff in order to gain more propulsion. And it help with water run off. But, if your just using it for mermaiding, then I'm sure that it wont affect it too much. I use mine for competitive swimming practices, so we may need different things in our monofin :p

[PearlieMae]

The only thing I compete for is attention! hahaha!