Kitschy Coo Skater Dress - Mermaid style

So, a couple of weeks ago, Myra mentioned that she wanted a mermaid costume. Since she asks me for a different princess costume on a daily basis, I sort of blew her off (also, I was in the middle of the coat, so I wasn't willing to be derailed). This time, the request stuck, and when she started asking on an hourly basis, we went fabric shopping for mermaid appropriate knits.

We did have a challenging time agreeing on a design. Myra really wanted a tail that was closed at the bottom. She's 4, so the reality of needing to walk just wasn't that important to her. Finally I convinced her (with the help of Google Images) that she really needed to be able to walk, and we agreed on a tail style. I used this tutorial for the fins.

The basic pattern is the sleeveless version of the Kitschy Coo Skater dress. It's such a great basic dress, obviously easily customizable. I think I'm going to use it for some further princess dresses. It's so nice when dress up dresses are comfortable and durable.

The fabrics we used were a hodgepodge of knits from Joann and Hancock. The nude knit on top is Joann's "Jet Set" poly knit. The sequin mesh for the shells and the green sparkle knit for the tail are both from Hancock's costume collection and the fins are poly organza from the BFF collection at Hancock.

To make Myra's "shells", I just cut a strip of the sequin knit and gathered it along the middle. I appliqued it to the bodice at around the bust level. I don't have a great back view, but I did extend the applique around the back, narrowing the band at center back to better approximate a bikini top.

The fins are just rough semicircles of organza (again, I based them on this 'tute.), pleated randomly along the front hemline for some volume. In the tutorial, the edges are finished with Fray Chek, which looks really nice, but Myra was breathing over my shoulder to wear this, so I serged the edges to finish them. Would have been nice if I had green thread, huh?

For the skirt, I used the Skater dress skirt, but slimmed it by taking several small wedges out of the pattern piece. I lengthened it to ankle length at center front and pegged it just slightly to give it more of a tail shape, but not enough to restrict movement.

My little princess is very pleased with her new mermaid costume. I'm happy with how quickly it worked up (about 3 hours, including pattern alterations) and how much she likes it. I think we'll be hanging out "Under the Sea" quite a bit in the near future.