Advice for a mermaid costume, please! Which costume fabric is least crazy-making?

[andreac]

So dd has finally settled on being a mermaid for halloween. I saw this costume and want to try to make the skirt/tail.

For the tail texture, she says she ran gathering stitches, do you think I could get away with shirring instead, with elastic thread in the bobbin? Do you think it would be easier? Also, about how much extra width do you think is should add into my pattern, to account for the gathering/shirring? 2x, 3x?

And lastly, having never sewn with shiny, glittery type fabrics, and knowing that some of them are absolutely terrible to work with, could you all recommend either easier fabrics to work with or at least the ones to absolutely avoid? My dd is only 3 so I don't need a ton of fabric and would rather spend a little extra money and save my sanity, since I also need to make yet another jedi costume this year.

Thanks for all your help!

[frogger]

that is beautiful! My dd has been bugging me to make a mermaid costume.

as for the gathering, I don't see why you couldn't use elastic and sheer it instead. as for how much more to add, it depends on how much it uses for the sheering. as I think each machine will sheer differently, depending on what it's set at. I would probably purchase enough fabric for 3x. I would rather have extra fabric then not enough.

as for the type of fabric, I'm don't know if one is better then the other, maybe someone else will chime in.

[frogger]

oh look simplicity 4043 http://www.simplicity.com/dv1_v4.cfm?design=4043

not quite the same but with some mods it could work

[frogger]

no I haven't spent all morning looking for mermaid patterns, I did do some sewing and the dishes :

I just found this tutorial

[andreac]

Originally Posted by frogger

no I haven't spent all morning looking for mermaid patterns, I did do some sewing and the dishes :

I just found this tutorial

Thanks for looking! I like the tail-on-top-of-skirt thing, as opposed to the split-skirt/tail because we are in New England and if it's cold I like that I can hide a pair of sweats under the skirt. But I like the idea in the tutorial you posted about just using an embelished fabric to get the texture. I'll have to keep my eye out when I go fabric shopping. I'm also thinking about making the tail totally seperate from the skirt, maybe with it's own waistband or maybe snaps or velcro, because then the skirt could be used for fariy/princess dress-up, not just mermaid.