Mermaid Costume--Log #7

Log #7: 10/20 11 Days

I’ve been working on this costume for a week and I like the progress I’ve been making, but perhaps I should take a day off to catch up on everything else I need to do.

I added glitter to the top today and I love the way it is turning out. I love sparkly things, so I probably just stared at the top for about 5 minutes watching the glitter sparkle. I want to blow all the extra glitter off with the hairdryer right now, but I’m going to wait until after work tomorrow. But I hate waiting for glue to dry! So just to know I did more on the top than just glue glitter on, I added a second loop of chain in the center and glued some glass beads to the back ends of the netting straps.

I added a few u-pins to the end of the crown. It actually stays in my hair now when I move around. I decided I didn’t like the fins on the end so I’ve scratched that idea.

I started work on the tail again. I watched a Martha Stewart craft video where they made their own tail, and it was very inspirational. I think I’m going to do what they did and add scales with gold paint to the tail. It’ll add depth and some shimmer to the otherwise matte tail I have now. Plus, now I’ve learned how people are able to make that fluffy tail base. I cut the green organza I have into four rectangles (they’re very close to squares), pinched them in the middle, and lifted up. It looks great! I feel much more confident about the tail now that I know how I’m doing it. I don’t think I had realized how much I doubted the tail was going to look. I cut the blue tulle into six rectangles, and I’ll place them in between the green ones. The two extra (since there’s six blue and four green) will go in the back to make a small train. Although, would it be a train if it doesn’t touch the ground? Eh, just fluffier in the back, you get the picture. I’m going to have to iron these pieces of tulle and organza, plus add some glue or nail polish to the edges of the organza so it doesn’t fray. I’m definitely going to sew it on rather than hot glue like they did on Martha Stewart. I also plan to look for a few more pieces of tulle or organza around the house and see if I can add those in. It may be too much however with all the color. I’ll see.

Glitterized top!

Freshly cut tulle and organza pieces

Martha Stewart Mermaid Costume

Mermaid Costume--Log #6

Log #6: 10/19 12 Days

Wow the days are really winding down and my schedule is booked solid so I hope I can finish this in time. I sewed on green ribbon to the straps of the top and extended that so it wrapped once around the side band. I then glued the ends down that the sewing machine couldn’t reach and tied and glued all the knots to the threads. I also started working on the crown! I glued on some seashells and pearls. I’m trying to make it look symmetrical. I had to paint the back of the seashells by hand so it doesn’t look terrible from the behind. I’m working on putting together some fins using lace and toothpicks I painted gold. I’m still going to perfect them a little, but I think they’re looking good. They’ll be going on the side of the crown.

Continuing on the top, I’d like to cover the clasp in the back, but I’m not sure how I’m going to do that yet. And I’ve permanently decided to use glitter on the top to fill in all the gaps. Now comes the fun part of using Elmers glue rather than hot glue. Plus I’d like to add some hand stitching to the shimmery material to add some more depth to it.

I haven’t done anything new with the tail. It’s not a part I’m looking forward to, so I’m putting it off.

Sorry if this log was a little all over the place, that’s kind of how I work on projects.

Crown

Top

Fins for crown

Mermaid Costume--Log #5

Log #5: 10/18 13 Days

I completely forgot about the glass pearls! I’ll figure out where to add those later.

I spray painted more seashells because I ran out. Then I hand painted those to fill in any gaps and glued those on. I filled in a bunch of the space with pearls, but there’s still a lot of grey showing. I cut the netting for the top and glued that on. I’ve got another set of straps now! It really helps a lot. I also added a small piece of netting to the bottom edge, and then glued the glass stones and a few pearls onto all the netting.

I remembered a shimmery type of material I got from my aunt a long time ago, and picking out a piece to match the tail, I covered the lacy part of the bra. It looks much better now, but I still think it looks a little tacky. Not sure what to do about that yet.

I also happened to weigh the top, it weighs 0.6 lbs. It doesn’t sound like much but trust me it feels like a lot when I put it on. And it’s not even finished yet!

Mermaid Costume--Log #4

Log #4: 10/17 14 Days

I started gluing seashells onto the bra! It is taking a lot more than I expected, but I just looked at my inspiration picture and I’m adding a lot more than other people. It also used a ton of hot glue, so that also weighs a lot. I glued on large gold mardi gra beads in a sideways S shape around the outside and underside of the bra. I’m going to space the shells out more to make way for more pearls, and i’m going to look at getting some large jewels. I’ve also figured out what piece of netting to use for the straps on the bra. I’m gonna cut the largest piece in half longways and use those pieces. Then I also might sew on the thickest green ribbon onto the straps. It’ll reinforce them and also color the straps. I also plan on filling in the spaces around everything with either glitter or microbeads. I’m just worried it’ll use all my microbeads, which I don’t want. I still need to figure out a way to make the entire top not look slutty.

I started the crown. First I glued on and wrapped the thinnest light green ribbon about an inch up the ends. Then I wrapped another two inches in the dark green, then wrapped the green around the rest of the way longways. I then glued on five gold spikes, evenly spaced. I think I’m going to need to glue on some wire or something to give a base for the seashells to glue onto.

edge of crown

Some seashells glued on!

Mermaid Costume--Log #3

Log #3: 10/16 15 Days

I handpainted all of the seashells to fill in the cracks that the webbing spray couldn’t get into. Turns out the gold paint is shinier than modge podge.

Didn't do much today other than that. More to come tomorrow.

Mermaid Costume--Log #2

Log #2: 10/15 16 days

I made a setup out of foam and skewers to balance the seashells on it while I spray it, so that the paint doesn’t make it stick to the paper. It worked mostly, I’m going to have to hand paint some of the seashells more. But spraying them before and after with modge podge helped the gold webbing to stick better. since I was doing this after dinner, the mosquitos were coming out in full force. I spent the last ten minutes trying to spray everything while fighting them off. I also sprayed the starfish. It’s feeling stronger. I still think it’s pretty fragile.

I washed the stretchy nylon material for the tail. I don’t think it shrunk at all. I folded the material in half so that it stretched left to right, from the folded edge to the two ends basically. Then I placed my pencil skirt on top, and traced around it with chalk, leaving about half an inch seam allowance on all sides. I also extended the skirt about two times the pencil skirt. There will be a lot extra, but that leaves room for messing around with the bottom. Cut it out. Note: MAKE SURE TO PIN IT ON THE SIDES BEFORE PICKING IT UP! I didn’t do this and it was a nightmare to get it lined up again. Sewed up both sides, tried it on, sewed the base a little smaller by about a half inch on both sides. Tried it on again, and it fit perfectly. I wanted it to be a teeny bit looser than I wanted because I will most likely be wearing leggings on Halloween due to the weather. Then I serged both sides and turned it right side out. I then took a piece of the green tulle and cut it so it was about four inches wide by the length of my waist. I folded this piece in half hot dog style. I put on the skirt, right side out, and pinned the green tulle so that the raw edges were up and the folded side down against the skirt. I made a few pleats, two in front, one in the center back, and had the raw sides meet in the center front. I folded these raw corners into a triangle shape and pinned them with the other raw edges along the skirt to make a V shape where my belly button is when the tulle is flipped up (so now it looks like an upside-down V). I sewed this on using the stretch stitch and stretching the fabric as I sewed. The stretch fabric bunched up underneath as I sewed, so I would recommend sewing with the stretch side up, even though it would seem to make more sense to sew with the tulle up since it’s got pleats. If you pin it enough it should be fine. I sewed up some stretch fabric I hadn’t wanted to, so I had to go back and seam rip and sew again. After fixing those, I tried it on one last time to make sure it fit before serging it. I was happy to serge it because tulle frays and I really don’t like working with it once it starts fraying. I might sew down the edge with gold thread, but I’m worried about the stretch of the fabric. Or I could just sew down the edge in parts when I sew on pearls at the top. We’ll see. It’s 10:14pm now I’m going to bed. That’s enough for one night.

Spray Paint setup

Mermaid Costume--Log #1

Log #1: 10/14, 17 days

Well I’ve gotten all my supplies I think. Two days of shopping. I got a bra at Ross, gold web spray paint, pearls, ribbon, a starfish, and netting at Michaels, purple nylon stretch fabric and blue and green tulle at Hancock. Then from around the house I gathered up nail polish, seashells, glass stones, gold and pearl mardi gra beads, paint, needle and thread, a glue gun, and my gold spikes. I found a headband that I had previously purchased at the dollar store in a pack, and am going to rummage through some old chains. I still need to find or purchase large rhinestones and drop jewels or beads.

I proceeded to paint the starfish gold (both sides). It got super delicate with the paint, I think because the starfish soaked it up and got more sponge-like. I plan on spraying it with the gold webbing and then spraying it with a coat of modge podge so it’s shiny. Hopefully those sprays will also strengthen the starfish.

I test sprayed the gold webbing on some small seashells. It doesn’t stick very well, but once it’s glued down it should hold. The texture is also really interesting with the webbing. Maybe with a modge podge coat it will stick better.

I also took some of the glass stones and painted the backs. I did three purple with purple glitter, five blue with silver glitter, and four dark green. I’m thinking I’ll use these on the crown and on the bra.

I unfortunately could not start on the skirt yet, since I would like to wash the purple fabric first, just in case it shrinks. Hopefully it does not, but I do think I have a bunch extra, so it shouldn’t affect the project too much. I plan on using the dark green tulle around the top, down the back, and a little on the base. LIGHTBULB! I’ll do a very small, about 2-inch edge around the base in green, and then underneath that I’ll put the blue, and maybe underneath the blue I’ll put some of the blue that we got from Corry, the stuff you tape off to hem. Wow if I use that I’m gonna have to go over the whole edge in modge podge or glue. But make sure to use it underneath so that it’s not super obvious.

I need to make a trident out of polymer clay, and maybe I’ll make two small starfish out of clay too, to add to the starfish stuff going on.

The netting I was disappointed in, because it didn’t come in one piece. It came in several, and I’m not sure I can do exactly what I wanted to do now. I wanted to do off-the-shoulder strap hangy things, but I need to make sure that I can still move a lot in it. Maybe I’ll only do it on one side, so it’s more asymmetrical!

I’ve also made a sketch of what I hope the costume turns out to be. It’s my guideline, however, and I need to remember that. Art never turns out the way you expect it to, it changes to how the art feels. Art flows through you, you help it to shape whatever it wants to be.

I picked out a white headband with silver shiny glitter woven throughout it. I plan on spraying it with the webbing to make it a little gold-splattered. I’m extending the back with a piece of kelp. I’m not sure if I’ll connect the ends to the ends of the headband to make a circle or if I will make two pieces hanging down. But I’m using the picot green as the base, then the other ribbons as the kelp pieces. I’m gonna add some beads to where the kelp meets with the ribbon. I’m also gonna glue on four u-pins, two on each end, to help hold the crown in place when I wear it.

Supplies