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