The Mermaid’s Tale x 2

I posted a couple of weeks ago about my cunning plan to make low cost mermaid tails from a pair of fleecy Ikea throws for my two girls, aged 3 and 7 months.  The larger tail had gone, er, swimmingly and I was looking forward to seeing Clover unwrap it on Christmas day as being a mermaid is a major life goal for her right now.

Baby Marigold, on the other hand, hadn’t expressed any such desires and prefers to spend her time eating whatever she finds on the carpet and playing her beloved keyboard, albeit a little tunelessly.

But sibling equality is the name of the game and matching outfit photos are a great source of entertainment and photo opportunities for me, so Marigold was going to have her own tiny mermaid tail.  And then somehow it got forgotten about, and then it was Christmas Eve, LATE Christmas eve and I went Oh Hell and got the sewing machine out at about 11pm and very quickly ran up this, based on some very approximate guesstimates at her size…

One tiny mermaid tail, completed just in time

The fish scales weren’t as elaborate on this one, but they are a little straighter (probably because I didn’t have any time to neck gin while I sewed).  It took around 40 minutes to make and there was just enough time to wrap it then head off to bed.

So, what was the verdict?  Well, I think Clover was a mixture of speechless and delighted.  As you will see from the photo below, she also got a mermaid doll and so her mermaid ambitions are now pretty much fulfilled.  The tail fits (it’s a bit of a struggle for her to put on, but then so were tights and she’s mastered them so imagine the tail will become easier in time) and she loves whiling away time, floundering on the carpet.

And what of her tiny sidekick, Marigold?  Well, the tail has turned out to be a tighter fit on her as I scaled down the width of the tail too much, but she’s been very happy wearing it and lying alongside her older mermaid sister.  And clutching a plastic snake, just to throw a little surrealism into the scene.

And the best bit is that being a mermaid doesn’t hinder her ability to play her keyboard, as you can see.

There’s plenty of fabric left so they can have as many tails as they like as they outgrow them.  And yup, Marigold, you will have the hand-me-downs, as you do with everything else!

Marigold the musical mermaid-baby