I am a sucker.
A few of the daycare girls talked me into making mermaid tails. I know it's a little insane, but piecing together a couple of skirts was better than their first choice. A girl had brought a purple knit hat from home and was wrapping her feet together with ponytail holders inside the hat. As the adult in charge, I didn't really approve of this so we found a new solution.
I don't have a lot of material laying around the house, but I did have a bolt of old blue polyester I inherited from the hubby's grandmother. It would have to do. I had considered using paper bags or old towels; If I had a girl's skirt, I might have adapted fins to fit. Whatever you have on hand will work.
In lieu of dragging out the sewing machine I used hot glue to "stitch" my creation together. I needed the skirts to be easy and fast. The little girls were aching to be mermaids and swim around the pretend lagoon in my dining room.
We managed to craft these in about 15 minutes, but they could easily be improved upon. If I had more time I would have added felt sea shells, sparkle paints, beads, rickrack, and more little details to create a special outfit. As you can see, I have very rudimentary sewing skills...
Here is what I did use:
- fabric
- felt
- hot glue
- yarn
- duck tape
- scissors
- nail polish
Here is how I created little mermaid costumes:
- I cut a double sided rectangle from the fabric. I measured to fit the width and length of each child. I cut them a little big to make removal easy and so they don't grow out of them so fast.
- I put a simple drawstring in the top of the tail and used yarn to cinch in the waist.
- I used a safety pin to pull the string across the waist.
- I put the seam in the back and "hemmed" the back edges 1/4 of the way up.
- Next, I cut half circles from the leftover material.
- I glued the circles on bottom corners to create the illusion of fins.
- We cut small ovals and scales from felt and duck tape. We painted them with sparkly nail polish to add a little dazzle.
- Finally, we were able pull on our fins and swim around.
Have you made anything lately?
3 comments:
I made curtains during my day off a couple weeks ago. Although I do sew a bit differently, in so much as I don't use hot glue, but I do very much love stitch witchery. Makes life lots easier with little fingers around there's no pins to fall out.
I used to laugh at my younger sister for using a glue gun to sew with...now it sounds like a pretty good idea...lol
I love hot glue! LOL I use it for hemming pants, attaching scout badges, crafts, etc. I do have a sewing machine, but I hate lugging it out and the babies were napping in that room. This was a quick alternative!
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