Making my first fabric tail... Feel free to help me avoid catastrophy... ;)

[Seatan]

Okay, so my Finis Rapid monofin is coming tomorrow. I hit up Jo Ann's today and got the fabric for the body. It's turquoise and purple metallic stretch fabric which I got for 50% off the listed price. (The turquoise doesn't look metallic in the image below but it really is.) I'm going back tomorrow for the sequined fluke fabrics (thankfully at 50% as well since they are $25 a yard!). The body and the fluke will also be turquoise with purple accents like the horrendous drawing below. So, before I start hacking at fabric, a few questions...

1) How much fabric do you think I will need to cover my fin? I plan to close the bottom with either little hooks or clips and the fabric will be tight to the shape of the fin. I definitely don't want to buy TOO much fabric, but I don't want to underestimate, either!

2) How do you close up your flukes? I want water to be able to escape, but I don't know what would be best... I am thinking several of those little hooks you find on skirts and blouses (or bra straps) might work... Or is it better to just leave slits and never take the monofin out?

3) How tightly should you do the fabric fluke? Should you make it to fit loose over the monofin even though it's stretch or should you stretch it over it a little and hook it?

4) I plan to make a dorsal fin over my heels. Is it a good idea to take moderately stiff vinyl (like a shelf liner) and create a fabric pocket for it and then sew it on? I want it floppy but not as floppy as fabric, and I don't want it to be clear vinyl. I'm just not sure if any problems might arise from doing it like this.

For reference, here are the fabrics and the tail design... Any input (or warnings!) would be MUCH appreciated as I have NEVER made anything like this before, despite a history of cosplay! Thanks for any help!

14701

14704

[Anahita]

1) How much fabric do you think I will need to cover my fin? I plan to close the bottom with either little hooks or clips and the fabric will be tight to the shape of the fin. I definitely don't want to buy TOO much fabric, but I don't want to underestimate, either!
Well, I have a competitor - it's notably bigger than the rapid - and I used a yard and a half of 55" wide fabric for it I think. I might have used less, but since I was "piecing" the tail together from fabric I had leftover from something else and trying to leave as many "big" pieces left over for another project as possible, it's hard to tell. Make sure you know the width of your fabric, because that often dictates how much yardage you can get away with.

2) How do you close up your flukes? I want water to be able to escape, but I don't know what would be best... I am thinking several of those little hooks you find on skirts and blouses (or bra straps) might work... Or is it better to just leave slits and never take the monofin out?
The most common ways are plastic zippers and velcro. I would avoid the hooks and eyes because they're metal - which will rust - and not really meant for something that doesn't have a constant pressure on it (like a fluke moving through the water) and they might unhook themselves and cause problems.

3) How tightly should you do the fabric fluke? Should you make it to fit loose over the monofin even though it's stretch or should you stretch it over it a little and hook it?
Neither, make it just large enough to fit over the fluke without stretching. Too tight might warp your monofin, and not tight enough will give you drag. If you see other fabric tail tutorials, you can see that the monofins pretty much fit comfortably snug into their casing.

4) I plan to make a dorsal fin over my heels. Is it a good idea to take moderately stiff vinyl (like a shelf liner) and create a fabric pocket for it and then sew it on? I want it floppy but not as floppy as fabric, and I don't want it to be clear vinyl. I'm just not sure if any problems might arise from doing it like this.
I would actually make the dorsal entirely out of fabric and then put zipties inside it to give it structure. It's much less work that way. The less zipties you use, the floppier it will be, so if you want a pretty floppy dorsal, just maybe one ziptie at the very beginning of the dorsal will do.

Hope that helps. Probably someone who's made more fabric tails than I have will be able to give you better insight and explain better than I can, but I guess this is a start. Lol.

[Seatan]

Thank you for the advice! If I can ask, how do you use zip ties for the doral fin? I can't quite picture it....

[Anahita]

You make the dorsal out of two pieces of fabric, then just stitch a channel wide enough for the ziptie to go in on them. Like a little really long, narrow mini-pocket thing.

[Jadestone]

I used 2 yards of fabric to make my tail (I'm 5'4), and had some wiggle room leftover on each end.

I used velcro to close mine--glued it onto the fabric with e6000 at the edge of the monofin, and i have some fringy bits sticking out past it.

I have no suggestions for dorsal fin sadly... although what I did when I extended my monofin to make it less floppy was use zip ties + duct tape to help keep them in place. Basically I traced the pattern I wanted, lay down the zip ties, made a sheet of duct tape (sticky sides facing each other with the zip ties between) and then cut it along the pattern I wanted. For the side fins I'm going to make for my next tail I'm going to try the same.

[SweeteSiren]

The tailmaking thread is pretty comprehensive at this point, so make sure you review it. Speaking from experience, don't try snaps or hooks, they don't work well & will eventually warp the fabric because it pulls unevenly along the edge of the fin. A $2 vinyl zipper works great. I was worried about flow-through too, so I inset the zipper in a panel of nylon mesh.

[Seatan]

Oh, man, I got my monofin yesterday and it's so lovely I don't want to cut it, LOL! I've never swam in a monofin any bigger than the Foil, and this looks like it will give such nice propulsion! I definitely don't want that shape, but it looks like so much more fun! *sigh* I may have to give it a good dive in the lake before I hack it up. *heads off to the pool*

[Jadestone]

You don't *have* to cut it to change the shape :) Like I said, I extended mine a bit with duct tape/zip ties. It causes a bit of drag, but if you don't make the change too dramatic it's not much more than the propulsion you'd use from cutting it probably. I have pictures of how I did mine on the first page of my thread (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?2548-First-time-tailmaking-Jade-s-attempt). But if you want it smaller, then cutting it is fine! Just make sure to round out the middle of the cut so it doesn't crack.

[Seatan]

Hey does anyone have suggestions on doing patterns on a fabric tail WITH fabric? I want the little sharp oval lines on my hips to be purple fabric instead of paint, but I'm not quite sure how to do it... If I do a cut out, the stitches will show. Likewise with applique. But I dunno if I can sew am inner seam to make thd shape. Never seen it done in a pattern anyway... Any suggestions? I am an intermediate self taught seamstress, so I know there are probably PLENTY of tricks I don't know.

[Echidna]

I did patterns with fabric on fabric, to produce a tail dark on the back and white on the belly, with white patches on the sides and a pattern on the fin.
I did a cutout and sewed it partly with the machine, and partly by hand.
The seams are done inside out, so mostly they're not visible.
For the parts that couldn't be done in this way, I used a thread that was identical in colour.

Also; the biggest mistake I made with my first tails was underestimating just how stretchy the fabric is.
If in doubt, make it much smaller than you'd expect it to be; it'll stretch.
If it's too wide, you get just too much fabric which will soak water and draaaag you down.

[Seatan]

Thanks Caltuna, that's good advice--I know that spandex stretches a lot but I hadn't thought how that would affect my cutouts! And Jade, that's an awesome tip about extending the fin! It would be great to not have to cut my fin!

[Seatan]

Okay, attaching a fluke to a body is a lot harder than I had anticipated. It sort of looks like crap, but at least it is starting to look like a tail! I couldn't bear to cut my monofin, especially since I am ordering a tail from FinFolk that should be here in January, so I decided to use the purple fabric to create a sort of illusion instead. This project was much more difficult than I expected! Next time I am cutting the whole tail from one piece of fabric!

15283

15284

Now I just gotta take in around the heels a little bit, hem the waistline, and attach the Velcro at the bottom!!!