another sequin tail

[Mermaid Enora]

I saw this tail in October and I have to say that it's even more beautiful in person.

Thanks!

It is suuuuuper pretty.

I was very close to rubbing my face on it.

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i do that with the tail sometimes

[Mermaid Enora]

Ok so I'm going to try and update this thread a bit.......

Please remember that I don't live by any water besides a shallow creek so I don't get many opportunities to wear my tail in or out of the water. My tail has been worn to a 3 hr dry/wet photo shoot in Coumel Mexico, 1 day at Scarborough Faire, 2 days at Oklahoma ren faire, 1 day at Texas ren faire, 2 2hr photo shoots at balmorrhea state park and to one DFW pod meeting. It is scheduled for another DFW pod meet up and for Roatan Honduras in Janruary.

All that said, I do think it has held up very well and I have tried my best to take REALLY careful care of it.
I have replaced a few sequins and torn off some ragged irridescent lining from a few scales. They still look great even with out the irridescentness.

I dont have pics of the repairs yet but I will endeavor to get some soon.

[Mermaid Enora]

Also, for the ren faires that I take my tail to I have a little cart that I ride around on.
Its a garden dolley that I took apart and merged with wheel chair parts!

It works well for me. I provide the power for the wheels and my mertender and water fairy friend Jessica pulls a rope and provides the steering mechanism as I'm too heavy and too awkward to turn myself using the wheelchair wheels.

When im not wearing the tail I pull the cart with the tail riding on it
I cover the waist area with a blue shawl to try and deflect any strange questions from kids.
if they do ask I say that I'm part selkie and that I can shed my tail skin.

I have a thick green outdoor cushion that covers the whole length of the cart and protects the tail from scratching on the metal. I usually decorate it with netting and pirate flags and the occasional seaweed.

Theres a little bag hanging off the back that holds my drinks and mermaid supplies.
as well as my walking around dress for when I'm not wearing the tail.


The the first ren faire I took it to I decided that I was going to wear it as long as possible cause I was so excited about it!!!!!!!!!

BAD IDEA......I wore the tail for 7 hours straight while sitting with my legs out in front of me the whole time.
When I FINALLY took it off, I couldn't feel my feet. (my foot pockets aren't even that tight either)
This all happened in May 2015 I finally got all feeling back in my toes around September 2015.
My toes were tingly for almost 5 months.
I talked to some occupational therapists that I work with and they said I had temporary nerve damage and to NEVER do that again. Now I only wear the tail for max of two hours at a time weather I'm in the water or out.

Please learn from my stupidity and don't wear your tail for 7 hours straight.
hopefully I'm the only one that dumb.

[Mermaid Enora]

Ok so here's some pics of my mermaid cart!






Listening to Sirena at the Oklahoma Ren Faire


I got to visit Aysun in the mermaid lagoon at Scarborough Faire!

[Mermaid Enora]

How my tail travels after its taken off!




My view of the faire as I'm pulled along.

[Mermaid Enora]

I met a cute tiny mermaid at the Texas Ren Faire!

[Mermaid Wesley]

Precious! Glad to see your tail is holding up! It looks great!


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[Spindrift]

I have two neoprene tail "skins" (my firsts from 2008!) that I need to resize and fix up because in my ineptitude, I used acrylic paint to paint scales on them and it shrunk the tail

I was thinking of fixing it up by turning it into a sequin tail, but was told it would be too difficult to sew the sequins on an already assembled tail... I would also have to rip off glued e6000 scales from one of the tail.
How did you do it? Any tips on that?

Great work!

[LouLouBelle]

Gorgeous tail!

I love shiny sparkly things... I'd imagine it must look amazing when you're moving in water and the light reflects off it.

I've also got a lot of respect for the crazy amount of patience you must have!


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[Mermaid Enora]

I have two neoprene tail "skins" (my firsts from 2008!) that I need to resize and fix up because in my ineptitude, I used acrylic paint to paint scales on them and it shrunk the tail

I was thinking of fixing it up by turning it into a sequin tail, but was told it would be too difficult to sew the sequins on an already assembled tail... I would also have to rip off glued e6000 scales from one of the tail.
How did you do it? Any tips on that?

Great work!

hmmmm if it has paint on it idk how easy it would be or not be to sew sequins to it?
it might be too thick.
As for removing E6000 you might be able to tear off the scales but I think it might be near impossible to rip off the glue in order to place new scales with thread.

as for too difficult to sew onto an already assembled tail, i don't think so.
I sewed my sequins with the body form inside the tail as opposed to sewing sequins on two flat pieces of neoprene and then sewing them together.
Hope this helps!

[Mermaid Alea]

Okay so I think I read somewhere that when making a sequin tail, you have to account for losing some of the stretch after you sew all the sequins on so you might have to make the tail a little bigger than you would normally? Is that true or did you just size it normally?

[Mermaid Enora]

Okay so I think I read somewhere that when making a sequin tail, you have to account for losing some of the stretch after you sew all the sequins on so you might have to make the tail a little bigger than you would normally? Is that true or did you just size it normally?

My tail has pretty much the same amount of stretch that it had before I sewed the sequins.
I sewed the sequins in vertical lines not horizontal so the stretch wasn't lost.
if the sequins are sewed in a horizontal fashion I imagine that some loss of elasticity would occur.

[Mermaid Enora]

those sewing by machine would've to sew in a horizontal fashion

[Mermaid Enora]

here's some pics of repairs i made to my tail.
they're in order and you can see how i sew the stitches step by step.

[Mermaid Enora]

My heels were slightly uncomfortable in the foot pockets.
Theres a screw head just slightly under my heels.
That and my feet always seemed suctioned to the heel area and couldn't move so I cut up some leftover
neoprene and glued it in the heel of each foot pocket with e6000.
The neoprene was fleece lined and is from some fishing wader socks that I was trying to use for booties and it didn't work out quite like I'd wanted so I quit using them a while ago.
I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I think it should work great!

[Mermaid Enora]

In conclusion to all this, I think this thread is finally and mostly done.
Unless anyone posts questions here that I haven't already answered in previous posts, I'll not be posting any more to this thread.
All the posts on this thread are exactly how I made my tail and I hope it helps others to do the same!
Sequin tails are fun and beautiful but tricky to make and maintain.

If you'd like to see more of my mermaid tail check out my instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/lavendyreenora/

Lots of Luck,
Enora

[Mermaid Alea]

Thank you so much Enora for sharing the process! You have been a big help! I got a small pack of sequins for Christmas just to test them out and see what the shine looks like in person. Once I wear out my current fabric tail I think I will start making a sequin tail.

[Mermaid Tami]

Great information! I can't wait to start mine!

[miraj_dancer@yahoo.com]

May I ask what you use for fringe? I really appreciate your response and respect your talent and patience. Thank you

[Mermaid Tami]

I finally FINISHED my neoprene and sequin tail and took it for a photoshoot in Mexico.
The tail took me 9 months, mostly cause it was driving me too crazy to work on it non stop.
So now that its done, I'm going to be posting step by step on how I made it and where all the materials came from. It's going to be put up in spurts of info since I work at least three 12 hour days a week.

I'm making a tail now and I'm planning to take it to Punta Cana. Did you have any problems getting it on the plane? Did you take it as a carry-on or have special shipping done for it? Im really starting too stressed about it. I would hate to get to the airport and them tell me that I couldn't take it.

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