Starting a sequin tail!

Wow. okay. im so excited for my new project. i have decided to make a second tail (the first one is all worn out, ripped, stretched) but its inspired by the amazing Hannah Fraser. :) I'm going to make a neoprene sequined tail! i know it will be very laborious but in the end i know it will be well worth it. I'm still deciding wether i should cover the whole tail with sequins or just part of it. Hannah Fraser's signature blue tail is a good example of what I'm going to try and achieve. she's modified in by putting sequins around her waist and fluke and it still looks dazzling.

http://www.hannahfraser.com/mermaid/...nceid=324&p=76 if you click on picture number 10, it a perfect example of what i would hope to achieve if i were to cover the entire thing.

i have already ordered a finis competitor monofin, the largest you can choose from, and and it should be arriving in the mail any day now. :) once it arrives I'm going to order the 4mm thick neoprene to paint and sew on.

here is the quick sketch i did of how I'm going to want my tail to look.
Attachment 1855
you might not be able to see it, but i will be using rubber matting or vinyl floor matting for the fins on the back side of the tail, the back of and bottom of the fluke and some on the side of my waist. super excited!

just make sure you do not copy her ideas exactly.good luck.

I really love the colors =)
I can't wait to see this done!

Nyorio your sketch it's beautiful! There are some news? *w*

odette-
oh of course! i know to respect hannah's original design. no copy cats here. :)

so i ordered the monofin at the beginning of the month and have gotten no word about it till now! it should be here between the 28th of this month and the 5th of march. apparently they wait until its ordered before they actually make it... :P
i also found a great website for sequins of all different colors. I'm planning on using the shell shaped ones. the more texture the cooler it will look. :)

http://www.ccartwright.com/shells.html

here is a picture of my monofin. its huge! i just got it today and its in perfect shape. although i was worried the sockets for my feet would be to big, they fit just fine when i wear socks, so I'm going to order neoprene socks. better safe than sorry. :) when i put the mono fin on the ground it went nearly a foot past my knee, and I'm 5 8'. so yeah it big. now to order the neoprene!
Attachment 2034
sorry i couldn't get any other pictures on. my computer is being weird...

Wow. Yeah, that's big. XD

Thts huge! Are all of their monofins tht big?! :0

Yeah this one is the finis competitor monofin. It's supposed to be the largest of all the different monofins. :) but it is the most expensive....

News? ^_^

so i was able to cut my monofin today! hooray! it was really scary cuz i didn't want to mess anything up, but it turned out quite nicely!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater
sorry, but I'm having to post my picture to Facebook then link them here....my computer doesn't like this site for some reason...
well anyway, i didn't cut all the way to the edges because I'm going to add rubber or some other stiff material to extend the fluke a little more.
im ordering the neoprene today so it should come some time next week. then the real work begins... :)

Hmm, I got this when I clicked on the FB link:

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At any rate, HOORAY for successfully cutting your monofin! That first cut must have been nerve-wracking. :) Can't wait to see how it turned out!

That's what I got to. I wanna see! :D

Sounds like you are really going strong with this! Keep up updated for sure. I'd like to see how it turns out :)

Thanks you guys xD I'll try and keep the updates coming. :)
And I'll deffinetly work on fixing my computer so I can actually post the pictures... :)

They have cool sequins on there. I have yet to purchase anything from them. Have you figured out the amount you will need? I'm making a scaled tail as well but I don't know if I want to fully cover it or just do accents.

yeah I'm going to use the shell shaped sequins. the more texture the better. :) but they are slightly smaller than the round ones so it'll take longer, but i think it will still be worth it.
im not covering the whole tail with sequins though. most around the top, down the sides and around the top of the fluke and maybe on the sides. :) then like hannah mermaid, maybe ill add on more sequins the longer i wear it. change it up every once and a while.

because I'm not covering the whole thing I'm going to buy around 5 bags of sequins (200 per bag for a total of 1000 sequins) which will only cost around 10-15 buck. then ill buy more if i need any.

OKAY! good news and bad news...and then some more good news....

GOOD NEWS
braces are off! whoo! no more metal mouth. haha :)

BAD NEWS
i got an email about my order saying that i ordered 4 different sheets instead of one! thats 300$ more than i was supposed to being paying for! ahhhh! so i quickly called to tell them about the problem and they gladly fixed it. so i ordered the neoprene asking for the size of 60" x 80" in order for the neoprene to fit all the way around my fin + seems but the problem was they don't have neoprene that comes in that size. :( so they called me back telling me the sad news and i had to cancel my order. dang....

GOOD NEWS
so i was talking to my mom about what i would do, along with my seamstress grandma and we solved the problem with the amount of neoprene. i just bought the largest amount they could give me (51"x84") and use the extra pieces after cutting the main pattern, to cover up the rest of the fin. whooo! I'm so glad they are master seamstresses. :)

my neoprene should be coming sometime next week. :) hooray!

Awesome, glad it worked out!

I'm gonna get the bags that have 2000+ and get a few colors. I don't know if that will be enough to cover my tail, but it's a start. I noticed on Hannah's tails, the scales are very close together. I'm going to see if I can get the scales to overlap, but not that much! Also I haven't decided if I want to paint the fluke or sequin it.

Because I'm only going to do accents, i'm going to leave the fluke painted with accents down the side. But mostly sequins covering the top.
I didn't know you could get bags that big!? I'll have to check that out... :)
I wouldove to see pictures of your tail when you get started! :D

the rubber vinyl came in the mail today! and the thickness is perfect! i wish the ribs could have been thicker but it will still look nice and flowy in the water.
Attachment 2168
Attachment 2169
so immediately i began cutting the pattern i need for the end of my tail and down the back of my legs. unfortunately i didn't quite think through the measurement when i ordered it, so i have to end up cutting the fluke part in half along with the section down my legs.
this piece i had to trace in halfs...if that made sense...
Attachment 2170

here is the fluke with the vinyl
Attachment 2172
Attachment 2173Attachment 2171
there are actually going to be two layers of vinyl of top of each other to make it thicker at both the fluke and my legs. it will also help to hide the zipper and the seem going down the back of my legs.
i want to be able to take the monofin out of the tail so I can clean it, and be able to make other tails without buying another monofin. so i might put a zipper along the bottom of my fluke, or velcro. still trying to figure that part out.

so yeah! neoprene should be here any time! I'm taking it with me to utah next weekend to have my grandma help me cut and sew everything in place! then comes the paint and sewing of the sequins! :D
the vinyl tends to fold, but that'll go away.
i added an inch to the bottom of every shape i cut out so i could sew it into the neoprene without loosing any length to my actual pattern. you can see an example of this in the third picture from the top.

That is pretty spiffy looking, I can't recall have you posted a direct link to where you bought it from? If so ignore me, if not I would suggest doing so if your willing to share :D

http://www.fabricsworldusa.com/site/....php?cat_id=24 Check it ouuuuuuuuut!

How are you planning on attaching the sequins? Sewing or Gluing? and if gluing what type of glue? Also what tool did you use to cut your monofin?

sirens: here is the site! there are two different sizes you can choose to fit your liking. i chose the 20" x 4' and that worked pretty well. sorry i didn't post it earlier. :rolleyes:
http://www.menards.com/main/search.h...goryHierarchy=

lulu: I'm going to sew on my beads. i have heard from a lot of people including hannah fraser that sewing works the best because your sequins will stay on longer, so you won't have to replace ones that fall off quite as often. but that doesn't mean you can't glue them on still. I'm just not quite sure what kind of glue you would use...

i used my black and decker variable speed jigsaw. and i used the small blade for precision. they look like this:
http://www.mcguckin.com/images/6866303.jpg

hope that helps!

GOOD NEWS! i got my neoprene today! and just in time cuz I'm leave for utah in almost 2 days! now i just need to get the zipper to go down the back of the tail, and velcro so i will be able to take the mono fin out and clean it so it doesn't rot. gotta find all this stuff in 2 days! ahhhh!
anyways, the neoprene looks absolutely perfect! i got a 3mm thick sheet (54"x81") of neoprene that is covered on one side be a protective blue fabric (which will help the paint stay the vibrant colors i need) and black on the inside, that way the neoprene itself won't uncomfortably rub on me. :) I'm so happy this is working!
i don't want to take it out of its packaging simply because I'm taking it will me on a long trip to utah and i don't want it to get damaged. this means no pictures for right now... :(

lately I've also been trying to figure out how I'm going to paint this thing.... in my very first post i posted this sketch of my tail....
Attachment 2233
i don't really want to paint each scale an individual color... so i came up with a plan...
I'm thinking of using create paint to carefully spray paint my tail the colors i want. because it will be a variety of different shades of green and blue, i think spray painting will be my best option. then i will go over the entire tail and just paint the outlines of each scale with white create paint. I'm thinking of sparkly white... :P

if you have any hints for painting, that would be fabulous!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mermaasai

http://www.fabricsworldusa.com/site/....php?cat_id=24 Check it ouuuuuuuuut!

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THIS IS AMAZING!!!! i just might have to make another tail using some of this stuff... there is even fabric that looks like fish scales!!! :D

I knooowwwww I immediately thought of this thread when I saw it, i hope you do something with it, it would be epic ^.^

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mermaasai

I knooowwwww I immediately thought of this thread when I saw it, i hope you do something with it, it would be epic ^.^

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yeah, my whole jaw pretty much fell off when the page finished loading. i am soooo glad you showed me this link! when i save up more money, i am definitely making a tail with this fabric. i just need to know how thin it is... 1mm 2mm etc

Oh hey, I didn't notice before, but does anyone think that the way the monofin is cut could become a problem? I remember people saying when modifying a monofin, you don't want to have sharp corners at the center like that, that it could cause it to break. Also, it worries me how one of the cuts extends into the fin some. Does anyone know about this?

If it isn't going to be a problem, just ignore me. I just want to catch it before something unfixable happens :O

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShyMer

Oh hey, I didn't notice before, but does anyone think that the way the monofin is cut could become a problem? I remember people saying when modifying a monofin, you don't want to have sharp corners at the center like that, that it could cause it to break. Also, it worries me how one of the cuts extends into the fin some. Does anyone know about this?

If it isn't going to be a problem, just ignore me. I just want to catch it before something unfixable happens :O

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You are correct. A sharp cut in the center will split further once it's under the stress of moving through water. Silicone won't fix it:

Attachment 2235

Rounding the cut will fix it though.

Amazing... ;O
1 quick question! Do you glue the rubber vinyl in the monofin?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spindrift

You are correct. A sharp cut in the center will split further once it's under the stress of moving through water. Silicone won't fix it:

Attachment 2235

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okay thank you for bringing this up! i was really freaked out when i screwed up the cut, and I'm glad you said something.
so i took your advice to round it out and my mom thankfully found her dremel. so i was able to round it out, but is this enough?Attachment 2237

Mafalda:
I'm just going to sew the vinyl into the neoprene, because I'm going to want to take the mono fin out to clean it. maybe if i were to glue the neoprene to the monofin then i would also glue the vinyl. but in this case I'm not.

Alright!
Thank you for your reply! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nyorio

okay thank you for bringing this up! i was really freaked out when i screwed up the cut, and I'm glad you said something.
so i took your advice to round it out and my mom thankfully found her dremel. so i was able to round it out, but is this enough?Attachment 2237

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I would personally make it a little shallower, but it's hard to tell without seeing it in person. If something happens to it, it's not a terribly big deal - you could fix it with materials that cost about $30.

Yeah I can do shallower. It's all getting covered by neoprene anyway right? Thanks do much for the help. I'm glad you guys caught that before anything bad happened. :)

okay! just got back from utah and sewing the tail went perfectly!
I'm going a little picture happy here so be ready... :)

front viewAttachment 2421

back viewAttachment 2422

close up of the back finAttachment 2423

back fin unzipped. sorry i look really bored in this picture...i was just really tired when i took it. :PAttachment 2424

inside view of the fluke. i attached velcro to the edge on the inside so i can take the monofin out when i need to clean it.Attachment 2419

i cut the vinyl on the fluke, sides and back. here is a close up of what it looks like...Attachment 2420

if anyone has any questions how we put in the zipper and the vinyl along the back or the velcro on the fluke, feel free to ask. I'm just being lazy right now and don't really want to type anymore if no ones wondering :)
so yeah! everything turned out perfectly! i made a made it a little to tight around my ankles, but the neoprene is stretchy so its not that bad. plus there's not as many wrinkles around the ankles when i put it on! :)