First Tail: Neoprene & Sequins

**Mermaid Tory** · 03-07-2015, 06:56 PM

Hello I am attempting my first neoprene and sequin tail. I am using 1.5mm neoprene, cartwrites shell sequins, and an Aquarius finis monofin. I also have shelf liner for extra fins. So far I've cut out the neoprene and I'm slowly sewing it together. The first thing I did was put the zipper in the middle back and now I'm doing a lot of trying it on, pinning, resewing, repeat. Don't mind my cat, she seems to love being in my WIP photos

**Mermaid Ruthie** · 03-07-2015, 10:56 PM

Awesome sauce, excited to see how it turns out. Congrats on making it.

**Coradion** · 03-08-2015, 03:28 AM

Wait before you sew the pieces together, sewing sequins is a b*tch if the tail is assembled. Sew the sequins on first except the seam edges then sew those and put in the last few lines of sequins. Sewing sequins will also make the tail tighter and shorter so make sure you have room to account for that. You will be really really sad if you finish sequining and it's too tight.

**Spindrift** · 03-08-2015, 04:16 AM

Originally Posted by Coradion

Wait before you sew the pieces together, sewing sequins is a b*tch if the tail is assembled. Sew the sequins on first except the seam edges then sew those and put in the last few lines of sequins. Sewing sequins will also make the tail tighter and shorter so make sure you have room to account for that. You will be really really sad if you finish sequining and it's too tight.

Do you know how many inches you lose on average from adding sequins?

**Coradion** · 03-08-2015, 05:16 AM

It depends on how tight you stitch and what size, Kariel says it's like an inch to two width wise for her tails. For me I didn't lose width but I lose two inches in vertical height so there's a lot of butt crack now.

**Princess Pearl** · 03-08-2015, 08:20 AM

I'm glad you mentioned that! I was planning on buying an Otter bay mermaid wetsuit and sequinsing it- I'd hate to go through that and have a tail I couldn't get into!

Back to the drawing board...

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**Mermaid Tory** · 03-08-2015, 04:57 PM

Thank you. Right now I'm just trying to get it to fit right. I'm adjusting it so that it's tight but not too tight because I heard neoprene actually gets tighter over time. I traced my body then cut it out a few inches away from the lines because I wasn't sure how much it would stretch so no I have tons of extra room from the knees down. Does it matter if it's together if I was planning on sewing each sequin by hand anyways or would you still suggest waiting to sew the seams in. Right now I'm working on the seams below the knees

**Mermaid Tory** · 03-08-2015, 05:21 PM

Oh I'm also keeping the fluke open to remove the monofin. It'll have velcro and shelf liner fins to help hide. There was one thread I read where someone made a neoprene sequin tail and they posted pictures for every step but I can't seem to find it now. Here is a quick drawing to show the basic design.

**Mermaid Tory** · 03-31-2015, 08:49 PM

Slow sequins progress

**Rett** · 04-01-2015, 08:02 PM

Excited to see how your tail turns out, your design looks fantastic!

**Bioluminescence** · 04-02-2015, 06:34 PM

What size are your sequins? I like the look of smaller one but I'm unsure of how many to use. I'll be keeping an eye on this, because I love what you have going to far!