4 Attachment(s)
Long time swimmer, first time mermaid
Hey there! My name is Abby and in the summer I live in the Richmond, VA area and I live in the Savannah, GA area for the rest of the year. I've been a competitive swimmer for 13 years and have been competing at the national level for the last 6 years. So far I've won 9 national championships! My best events are mid distance and distance freestyle but my underwater kick outs are what make my races so good. I've always wanted to get into mermaiding, so after a couple years of thinking it over and trying on monofins at the pool, I finally decided I wanted to drop a ton of money and get into it.
I'm an artist with a major in animation and a minor in costuming. For years, my sister (who's a fashion major) and I have created elaborate costumes over the summer. Last summer I made a mermaid costume I loosely based off the costume designs of Erika Turunen for The Finnish National Ballet's performance of The Little Mermaid.
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Costumes by Erika Turunen for The Finnish National Ballet's performance of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson
I had a hard time finding the materials for this costume and an even harder time sewing it! I tracked down a company that sold pre-sequined oval shaped fabric and ordered a yard of it so the scales would come down to my calves. I had to hand sew the pants because, at the time, I didn't own a sewing machine. I don't think a sewing machine would've been very effective anyway. The sequins were always getting in the way of my needle even though I was hand sewing it. I can't imagine how annoying it would've been with a machine!
Once I finally got the main part of the pants sewn, I added a waistband and said goodbye to the annoying sequins! It was time for me to move on to the fluke of the pants. I didn't want the fluke to be as long and drag on the ground too much because I was planning on wearing the costume to a Halloween party that's famous for being crowded. The last thing I wanted was for someone to tear up all my hard work. So I made the fluke shorter than Erika's to save myself from future heart break. Together, there are seven layers of fabric in the fluke. Four layers of fluff, and three layers of large to small scale shaped fabric. Once I finished the fluke I added some larger blue sequins in between the pants and the fluke to help the transition blend a little better.
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Costume by me for Halloween 2016
This summer I decided to step my costuming up a notch and actually make a swimmable mermaid tail! I ordered my first monofin and I'm in love! It didn't take me very long to get used to swimming in it. The only real problem I came across was I needed to exaggerate my movement a little more when I needed to turn or change directions. I ordered a Mahina Merfin and I can honestly say I love it. The only thing I wish I could change about it is maybe making it a little stronger. (That thing will flop around like a wet noodle if I decide I really want to kick fast.)
I promised myself that I never work with sequins again after last summer's mermaid pants but then I found some sequins that I'm absolutely in love with so I guess I'll suffer again for one more summer. This summer I'm making a sequin tail with a silicone fluke (go big or go home am i right?). I'm going to be using two different sequins for the body. There will be a non-metallic zipper in the back and a non-elastic tying waist band hidden inside. For the fluke, I'll be making a silicone mold and laying a sheet of netting into the mold while it's still curing. Once it finishes curing, I hand sew the silicone onto the rubber mono fin with the netting to support the silicone and prevent it from ripping easier. Once it's attached to my monofin, I'll paint it with some Silc Pig and hopefully, my tail will be done after that.
Here's the proportionate design I came up with:
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Mermaid tail drawing and design by me
And here's all the notes and details I wrote over top of it all:
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Mermaid tail drawing and design by me
If there's any tail maker out there that sees a flaw in my plan, please let me know but I think I've got all my problems pretty much covered. (The venting will empty out at the end of the body of the tail. Since I have it buttoned down, there are gaps for the water to escape in between!)
