Lucy's patchwork neoprene tail

[lucyish]

I'm making my first ever tail from craigslisted and ebayed wetsuits. It's going to be Franken-tail style, with multiple colors and visible seams.

Here are my raw materials:
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[lucyish]

After a couple of weeks of worrying about screwing up, I finally took the plunge and started cutting and sewing. I'm using seal cement to glue it together, and then zig-zag stitching over it.

Having read all the threads about neoprene sewing tips, I should have expected that my machine might not be able handle it, but I bought leather needles and heavy duty thread and was thoroughly convinced I could just finesse it into working. Well... I can manage straight stitch, but my zig-zag won't zag, (it'll catch the bobbin on the zig side of the stitch, but not on the zag side) no matter how much I adjust the tension or sweet talk my machine. So, I am manually making a really janky zig-zag by using the forward and reverse while pulling my fabric sideways. Here's what it looks like right now:

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[Mermaid Wesley]

It's a start! Keep it up!


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[Echidna]

I have an old machine that won't do anything but non-stretchy thin fabric and common thread.
I'm sewing a lot by hand xD

Will you paint the neoprene once it's done?

[lucyish]

I don't currently have plans to paint it, but that's mainly because I don't have enough painting experience to be confident that it won't look terrible. So right now the vision is a non-realistic stitched up misfit tail. Perhaps with a dark origin story, like I had to murder a bunch of surfers to earn my fins. >;)

[MermaidBrandie]

I made my tail from an old wetsuit and i'm sewing sequins on it to cover all the seams. I didn't glue them though, just sewed. :)

[lucyish]

Progress:

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