Pinterest Party: The Mermaid Top

Okay, this week I cheated. I didn't see this idea on Pinterest. It came out of the necessity to stop Ainsley from whining. She'd just watched a movie about mermaids and desperately wanted to become one. She asked me to make her a mermaid top. I told her I didn't know how. "Yes, you do." she said. (why is it that children - at least mine - think their mothers are magic and know how to do everything??)

After arguing for several minutes that I didn't have material or a pattern and No! I was not going to cut up one of her bathing suits.... I huffed and said, "Let me think." I went to my sewing box and found a scrap piece of muslin. I laid my child down and measured what I thought to be a modest (read covers almost all her torso) mermaid top. I made it wide enough to fit her hips so she could step into the finished product then got to work.

I cut out a long rectangle:

And pinned up both sides to hem. As I was pinning I thought I'd better leave room for ribbon. That's the easiest way I could think to keep it on her since I wasn't going to tailor it with buttons and I have no idea how to put in a zipper nor did I have an extra one floating around.

After running a straight line hem on both top and bottom, I put the ends together for a seam up the back making sure to start and stop under the hems so I could still get my ribbons through (very important with both mermaid tops and curtains).

After running the seam I grabbed some ribbon from my box, then measured and cut three pieces. Two for around the body and one from the bodice around Ainsley's neck. I threaded the two body pieces through the top and bottom hem.

Then I found the middle of the front of the mermaid top and the middle of the last ribbon. Folding the ribbon in a little, I sewed the ribbon to the middle of the garment not caring it went through the ribbon of the top hem. Like so... All you need is a few stitches, not the whole way up and down. I sewed mine on the inside of the garment so you couldn't see the ribbon unless pulling it upward away from the garment.

Once on it looks like this:

The ribbons pull it tight around her little body and keep it on:

There you have it. Ainsley's mermaid top. Muslin is all I had to work with, BUT with a little planning you could use silky material or sequined material. OOOOOOOH. That would be pretty. Make it in turquoise and add Bedouin pants and you have yourself a Princess Jasmine set. Just sayin'.

Oh, and one last thing. My daughter also wanted a tail. So we made one with a trash bag. Cause we're glamorous here in the Burgh.

She stayed like this until she realized it was hard to get around - um, like five minutes. Then she magically had legs again.

What did you make this week?