Modesty's Costume Closet

Octopus Dress Idea This is a side-step from all things mermaid tail related. I wanted to give a chance to all kinds of sea creatures when developing this series of blog posts. So if you're feeling more of a cephalopod or jellyfish vibe for your costume, read on!  You may want to get a swim dress or swim skirt pattern to help. I really like Simplicity 8139 . The concept is to create a panel skirt of sorts but shape the panels into tentacles.  On a side note, you can also just create a skirt of tentacles that you wear over a swimsuit. That is a slightly easier option and what I ended up doing.  Tentacle Skirt For 8 tentacles, you'll cut 16 panels. One for the internal side and one for the outer.  (Note: If you count your legs as a pair of tentacles, you only need 12 panels.) The total number of tentacles is up to you.  For each panel or tentacle, pin the inner and outer fabric with the right sides together. Sew along the bottom edge for each tentacle.  Align ...

 This will mostly be about little details you can add here and there to add that extra bit of creature-ness to your merfolk costume. Most parts may involve latex parts so if you have a latex allergy, you may need to look into a silicone alternative or bodypaint.  Gills There are several options for gills from simple make-up lines to full latex/silicone attachments.  Latex Gills How to make Mermaid Gills (video) Waterproof Eyeliner Waterproof Bodypaint Gills are commonly placed on the cheeks, neck, or lower rib cage.  Fin Ears Ear design can be taken in a few different directions. Again, prosthetic ears will be a common solution. However, you can also craft ears with a more "jewelry" ear cuff.  Swimmable Ear Cuff ($) Latex Ears ($) Siren Ear Tutorial (video) If you are not doing a fish-related mercreature, you may just use elf ears. As you may have noticed from my links, my favorite brand is Aradani Studios . You can find other sellers of prosthetic ears on ot...

 Now talking about what to wear on your torso. There are so many options to consider because this will be completely about what kind of character you're trying to create and the kind of effect you're going for. You don't have to go with the sea shell bra. Technically, you can wear any kind of swimwear or t-shirt or some such. But we can have some fun looking at clever nautical themed outfits to try. Bikini Tops I've seen a lot of very creative solutions for a mermaid bikini top from silicone scales to sea creatures to "found objects". Commonly, sea shells such as lion paw clams, starfish, big leafy kelp or fishing net.  Here are a f ew tutorials on how to make a mermaid top out of old bras or how to sew one of your own.   Starfish crochet Pattern   Seashell Pattern Silicone Scale Tutorial  (video) Seaweed Top (video) Floating Sea Shell Pattern Scale Tops Creating an illusion of scales over your chest can be quite the challenge. You can get swimsuit tops make...

This time we're going over design considerations for blending the tail into your human half. This can be part of the overall design of the "human" part of your costume or incorporated into the tail.  The methods I suggest are:  Waistline Shape Trimming on Waistline Blending Belt  Obvious Belt Leotard/One Piece top Swim dress Body Paint Waist Not, Want Not Now the waistline top of the tail can be patterned out before sewing to offer a bit of interest or blending to the tail. By default, most tail patterns will be like a pair of leggings with just a straight edge going all the way around. However, you can create the waistline to have the v-shape dip like Disney mermaids. Or perhaps a softer U-shape dip. Even creating a waistline higher in the back than the front creates a more dynamic line than the straight cut.  All the Trimmings  To me, this is what I consider the Disney mermaid method. The fin that goes around the waistline of the tail. Adding any kind of trim ...

Creating a solid colored tail is certainly a legitimate method and may work out best for your mercreature design. But more likely than not, you will run into the necessity to design and incorporate markings. These can be as minimal as a color shift in scales or a distinctive set of markings only found on that species. I'm looking at you blue-ringed octopus and Blue Tang and Orcas.  My focus for this will be on fabric based tails. The tutorials for silicone or latex tails can be found in the Basic Tail Design post.  Make your Mark So, we have four approaches to creating markings:  Pre-Printed Fabric Paneling Applique Fabric Paints or Dyes Pre-Printed Fabric For this method, you would create the design or find one with a fabric printing service. Many of them will print onto spandex or similar fabric types. I also believe that the FinFun brand has a design-your-own tail product which may be a method. For a pattern like fish scales or tiger shark stripes you will be fine wit...

The major part of our mercreature costume is the tail! By which we give up our legs for...well...nothing else. I did not get gills or hypnotic singing out of this deal. Just can't use my legs. For this, I'm going through what I've thought about when designing potential tails for my mercreatures.  For this exercise, I am going to consider choices for a Koi fish mermaid, an orca mermaid, a selkie, and an Eldritch Horror...aka a cephalopod.  Basic Tail Anatomy  This isn't going to be the technical anatomy of aquatic life, but just the parts of the costume. The tail is made up of the body (usually the tube portion that fuses your legs together), the fluke (Caudal/tail fin), and the waistband at the very basic level. You can add other fins that correlate to your sea creature (things like a dorsal fin or pectoral fins or pelvic fins).  But for this, we do want to get some guidance from references.  (Pics of Butterfly Koi, Orca, Seal, and giant squid) Tail Body For mos...

The big challenge of the mercreature costume design is making it appropriate to swim in. So what we make it out of and how things are adhered together are going to matter! The three principles to keep in mind are:  Keep it Light-weight Keep it Clean Keep it Together Adding the water-proofing element will limit the materials you can use safely in the water without causing harm to the swimmer and the environment!    Why use Water-Safe Materials? The big reason of course is personal safety of the wearer. Most modern swimwear is made out of synthetic fabric which not only stretches, but it doesn't absorb much water and become heavy. (Obviously, swimsuits get wet and absorb water but it doesn't get heavy.) The extra weight will affect buoyancy and make it more difficult to swim.  Natural Fibers and Materials on the other hand become heavier when submerged in the water. They hold onto liquid when absorbed. There's also the unfortunate effect of the fabric shrinking or beco...

 Summer has been going strong and I personally have started swimming more. And not just any kind of swimming, but mermaiding!  Couch Surfing at the Moment But now that I'm used to swimming with my commercially bought tail, I've been thinking how to make my own. Again, this series doesn't necessarily include tutorials that I have made, this is more of a design primer. It will include links to tutorials when necessary.  Anyway, I didn't want to limit my imagination to just mermaids/mermen. Because some of the concepts I want to tackle are more based on cetaceans, cephalopods and sharks. Of course much of the process will include fish tail mermaids but I wanted to encourage some variety.  Shark boi! Precautions The end goal is to create a costume you can swim in. However, there's always risk involved with swimming in general. It's doubly risky while wearing a mermaid tail. Keep these basic safety guidelines in mind when swimming in your costume: Do NOT swim alone! ...