Mermaid costumes

June 2008: May was one of seven dancing mermaids in the elementary school play, Peter Pan. I was the costumer and den mother for the mermaids, and they were so sweet, thanking me for their outfits and giving me hugs. They felt beautiful in their costumes and enjoyed twirling around, and the little kids were enchanted with them.

The mermaid costumes were loosely based on McCall's pattern 5498. We chose the fabrics because they were dirt cheap ($6 for 10 yards of the pink at Goodwill, and $3 a yard for the floral print); pink wouldn't have been my first choice, but we had a limited budget.

I didn't want to make the attached top that was in the pattern, so I put elastic around the waist of the tail to make a skirt. I had to modify the sizing because the pattern didn't come in older girls' sizes. I cut the neckline and sleeve hems off some inexpensive craft-store T-shirts, shirred the center front and shoulder seams, and made a sash out of the fin fabric. I tied a strip of blue tulle to the girls' wrists and glued an orchid to a hair clip for each girl.

I spent the better part of two weeks working on these costumes, and for a while my bedroom looked like a Vegas showgirls' dressing room. Costume making is much like cooking in that the time spent preparing greatly exceeds the time spent presenting. You have to enjoy the process or it will make you crazy. This project was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. And the girls liked the results, so all the effort was worthwhile.

Comments

[NinaM]

Hi Carrie, Nina here, Dan Ivanis's wife. He forwarded a link to your parenting blog and I found your costume site from there. Your costumes are wonderful! I'm going to bookmark the mermaid one and maybe give it a go with Rose this halloween!

[Carol Clowdus]

Hi,
I need a mermaid costume for my 13 year old daughter for her school play "Peter Pan", would you sell any of yours? I do not own a sewing machine!

Thanks,
Carol