Miyu's POTC-inspired fabric tail

[Miyu]

Back in fall-ish, I picked up some great scale-y print spandex on clearance at Jo-Ann's. It's the same materials as dancewear, but wasn't labeled as such. It has little plastic-y clear dots that look like scales, on top of the awesome print already on the fabric. It looks perfect for a "wild" mer:

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(Pictured above with some stretch sheer black fabric I will be using for this tail as well, for soft floaty side fins)

I'm heavily inspired, of course, by the POTC mermaids, as well as these mermaids:

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I also have purchased for this tail:
Nude spandex (for the lining - the outer fabric is somewhat thinner than I'd like - as well as for a v-shaped waist area I'm hoping to make "blend")
Black non-stretch chiffon-type material for the fluke - The monofin I'm planning on getting is clear, so I want a see-through fluke
Clear vinyl: for covering/sandwiching the chiffon... This serves the dual purposes of protecting the chiffon from damage, and making a more fish-like fin out of water :)

Since I still have no monofin at all, I have traced Morticia's Hydra (the monofin I want) and created a cardboard monofin with swim shoes for foot pockets... Until I can get my hands on a monofin.

[Miyu]

Got my pattern positioned along where I wanted it on the scale print, and cut out my outer pieces last night! Here it is pinned to the nude liner so I can cut those out as well:


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[Miyu]

oh gosh dangit that stupid file thing again... sorry for the double pics... -_-;

[Aziara]

This is going to look great! I just love animal print, but I never thought of using it on a tail!

[Miyu]

Thank you! haha yeah, I didn't even realize it was animal print... in person, those clear dots catch the light and look like scales so much that it wasn't until I got home that I realized it was some weird mix of animal prints! :P

Bonus! my mertender saw the above pic, and said "That's neat! It really looks like a fish!" :D <3

[Miyu]

Okie dokie, more progress on this tail! Yesterday, after I was done being sick from bad seafood (first time ever, ugh), I worked all night on basting together all 4 layers of the tail, trying it on, basting again, trying it on, basting some more... (I had to take it in quite a bit). I also got all the ruffly side/waist fins cut out, sewn together, and everything is pinned in place for the main tail body. Today I'm finishing basting it again, then will be sewing it by hand. Yep, by hand, because my sewing machine only does one straight stitch :(

I scrapped the vinyl idea, because I got to looking at exactly how vinyl is made and what it's made of, and unless it's specifically designed to withstand soaking in water or chlorine, I won't be using vinyl in my mermaid stuffs - far too many nasties to leach into the water and absorb into my body... and the wildlife's as well! I'm pretty sure the vinyl I got is not marine-grade, as I got it in the wal-mart fabric section.

That really stinks, because I was hoping to use the vinyl to give the fluke some extra weight/durability/mermaid-like flop, especially out of water, since my fluke is long, flowy and lightweight...

I was considering trying to coat it with some silicone as well, and then I realized PearlieMae's little fins were silicone caulk... Of which I have less than one tube, but I may experiment.

My other idea to provide a little structure is to sew in "veins"... I have lots of acrylic yarn in various thicknesses that would work wonderfully for that, but I know it won't provide the best "weight". If I go that route, I may incorporate this glow-in-the-dark thread I have... I have until I finish sewing my main tail body to figure that out :p

[Miyu]

PICTURES!!!

(Special thanks to my mertender for taking the first two pics :))


I finally got all the pieces of the main body basted together! Now to figure out this hand-sewn stretch stitch...

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Please excuse the mess... I am a crafter without storage space :sweat drop:

And yes, that is a cardboard monofin... the spandex is tacked to it to hold it in place until I get the fluke bits cut out and attached. I'm using this monofin to at least be able to make my tail and take some photos and such until I can actually buy the monofin it's traced from (Hydra).

I still have to decide if I'm going to attempt to coat the fluke fabric in silicone or something before I tackle that :p

[Miyu]

So I learned how to sew a stretch stitch by hand! It's a lot easier (and more forgiving) than I thought it would be. I'm knotting it every 3/4" or so, in case threads break when swimming in it - I'd rather swim in a tail with a few holes than have a tail falling to pieces at the mer-meet :p Also, I really didn't want to try sewing 6 layers of spandex my first time sewing spandex on a sewing machine, and this offers a lot more control...

PICSHURS!!!

Red is basting stitches...

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This was 2 or 3 hours worth of work... getting faster at it though! I should be able to finish this by my self-imposed deadline... :sweat drop:

[Mermaid Ellowyn]

Looking really good Miyu! I can't wait to see more :) Is that just a standard hand-sewn stretch stitch or is called something else? I will have to look up how to do that, looks very handy!

[Miyu]

Thank you! It's a hand-sewn stretch/zigzag stitch, and I'm knotting it every 1/2 or so (whenever I remember to, really) to really anchor it.

Here's the link I found the stitch on, halfway down the page: http://www.shushanna.com/handsew.html

[MerAnthony]

That looks really good for hand stiching an it must have been a real pain in the butt to do. But all in all it looks great. Fintastic job an to go through 6 layers. (OUCH)

[Mermaid Dottie]

That looks Really awesome. No joke, I kinda love your tail, Miyu.
And those other mermaids you posted... I can totally imagine you in that group. That poor boy up there has no idea, has he.
SO creepy cool.

[Miyu]

Awh shucks you guys are so sweet... :blush:

It was actually more of a pain to get fitted and basted together (everything was slipping every which way)... But once I basted it, it got SO MUCH EASIER to work with. Still, trying to baste 6 layers in the right place... :eye twitch:

And thank you Dottie! That is quite a compliment... :dance:

[Echidna]

That's a quite unique design right there!

[Miyu]

Thank you! :3
I wanted to go for more of a "creature" effect, I'm not such a holographic-sparkly-scales-spandex person myself :P And that fabric was just too awesome to pass up...
And also I really, REALLY like what I've seen of the POTC mermaids (haven't watched the movie yet)...

I'm planning on entering this tail into a costume contest! It's not a big contest, just among the official fan forums for my new tied-for-favorite band... But I think I'll be the only mermaid :P (though I managed to find the one other fan on the band-forum who knows about swimmable mermaid tails and has a monofin and we totally derailed a thread for a second LOL). There's some custom-made medals and some band merch up for grabs, so I'm all in for that (since I desperately need copies of their music)!

ETA: I'm about 3/4 of the way done sewing one side... I'm sick so I'm having trouble focusing on it for long periods of time... Foggy brain and all :bed now:

[Echidna]

illness sucks :/ don't try to do much until it's better.
speedy recovery!

[Miyu]

Haha thank you :) I've been mostly just hanging out in the dark corners of the internet, figuring out just how crazy the members of my new favorite band are... So no sewing got done yet. But I'm about to lay down for a nap shortly, and when I wake up I plan on sewing whilst catching up on old band podcasts... I am feeling *much* better, I didn't catch it as bad as everyone else... Plus I was kind of making myself (gently) sing all day, so I think I cleared my sinuses (maybe that's why I was never sick back in school?).

Also OMG! I had a moment of complete shock today... I went to check my mail and I saw that I had gotten a donation to my fundraiser! I couldn't believe it! AND as it sunk it, it still took a minute for the amount to register...

...It's enough to get my monofin! So now I can practice much more before my silicone tail! And also now I can swim in my spandex tail at the local mer-meet this month! AAAANNNND I'll have a rad translucent fluke for the costume contest I'm entering this tail in!

A kind mer-angel just about made me cry with that random act of kindness... :sad eyes:

[selkie13]

Can't wait to see it finished!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Miyu, the costume contest you're talking about wouldn't happen to be the Kazooland contest over on the Cavalcadium, would it?

Also, that is an amazingly neat hand-done stretch stitch. I am amazed at your patience, I hate hand sewing.

[Miyu]

OMFG EXDRAGHUNT NO WAY!!! *glomps* :hug: Yesyesyes, that is meee! Haha sorry, I am such a Rabbit IRL sometimes... Now I have to figure out who you are on the Cav! *bounces*

*giggles because we probably just confused a good amount of people with talk of Kazooland and Rabbits*

And thank you! :blush: I've been hand sewing for years, I've barely used a machine... So I got pretty decent at hand-sewing stuff so it doesn't come apart too easily and looks ok. It can be a little maddening sometimes, as I'm really too much of a perfectionist about my stitching...

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

I use the same name on the Cav too. xD In fact, I use the same username everywhere, so I'm not hard to find. I'm mostly fandom-active on Tumblr, tho. Not so much on the Cav.

I've been hand sewing for years and I still hate it. My philosophy is 'if it fits through the machine, it goes through the machine' :B

[Mermaid Dottie]

Ooh! Monofin donation! Congrats!!!! :happy dance:

Sent from my C6916 using Tapatalk

[Miyu]

*stalks you all over the internets*

I keep a few of my accounts separate from each other... I need to have space to breathe on the internet, since it's pretty much my life LOL... So I go by a couple of different names.
And the Cav is SO DEAD I've been feeling bad about resurrecting old threads and my username is EVERYWHERE on those boards... except the RPG threads (yet). I'm hoping that if I annoy enough people they'll start posting again.

I just started using a sewing machine again, but it's a pain trying to sew everything over at Morticia's, but my own little machine only does one stitch, so no stretch fabrics for it :P I hate hand-sewing too (hence my procrastination), but it gets the job done when I need it to...



Thank you Dottie! I did quite an interesting happy dance! :P

(Exdraghunt - I ran around flapping my hands like Rabbit uncontrollably. That's apparently my happy dance now. It rather annoyed my mertender :P)

[Miyu]

OH GOSH I'm finally almost done with the body of this. I had to keep taking breaks because it was just killing my hands. I'm finishing up sewing the ankle area of the main body of the tail, then to cut out the fluke and attach it... THEN I can finally put the waistband on! I should definitely get to cutting out the fluke today, since I'm already most of the way done with the ankles, just taking a break.

After my monofin got here, I decided to take in the ankle area a bit because my cardboard mockup's traced "strap" area was not as squishy as the real thing. (Thank you so much again to my wonderful donor!!!). The monofin *does* have a logo on it (I think it's vinyl maybe?). I'm going to see if I can remove it, since it does show through the translucent fluke fabrics, especially when I raise my tail up.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Creepy!!! That boy looks exactly like someone in my class! The hair is the same, face is the same, even the style of clothes is the same!:lol:

Back on topic... Have you finished yet? More pics!

[Miyu]

Oh wow, how odd! Perhaps he was the model! :P

Not finished yet, getting ready to decide how exactly I want to cut out the fluke... After I go eat something and grab some more tea. When I get that cut out and tacked on, I'll take some more pics :3 I gotta get working hard on this, I have just a week to finish...But the rest should be fairly easy compared to all the shaped stretch stitch I've been doing! :P

[Miyu]

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I managed to remove the logo... Not that I don't want to show my brand off, but it was very visible through even several layers of various sheer fabrics every time the light shone through it...

As you can see, the monofin ridges are still quite visible. I have a second layer of sheer fabric cut out to remedy that.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

The pattern!! Its​ soMEOOOOWWRRR!

[Miyu]

LOL! I didn't even realized until I got home that it's kind of a "big cat" print! :P In person, those little plastic dots really make it look more scale-like... Really, I don't understand how little plastic dots go with animal print, but ok then :P

[Miyu]

I finished it in time for my contest! I made a huge picspam post about it on my blog (http://moonlitcostumes.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/mermaid-tail-finished-almost/)... Let me see if I can link a few of the pics here for posterity...

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(these are just a few pics to show off the tail, go to the blog or my Mermaid FB page to see the rest :P )

[Morticia Mermaid]

WOW! That looks great Bek! Can't wait to see it in person :D

Sent from my LG-VM696 using Tapatalk 2

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Wowee!

How did you get past showing off your cankles?

[Miyu]

Thank you both! I had a lot of fun with this shoot :3

I think how I got past the heel bump look is that I extended my spandex portion down to the end of the monofin (plus I tried to make it pretty snug in the ankles)... I tried to trick the eye into not seeing the footpocket of the monofin :P Because I can't edit photos to save my life, and I really don't want to edit any of my own LOL!