Mermaid Costumes – always an eye catcher

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Make Your Own Mermaid Costume

So your daughter wants to be a mermaid? Or do you want to be a sexy siren yourself this Helloween? No problem.

Here’s what you need to make your own unique mermaid costume for your next fancy dress party!
It’s not too hard and depending on how detailed you want to be, it’s not even very time consuming.

First of all I recommend you or your daughter think a little bit a bout what kind of mermaid you want to be. There is the good mer-princess like Ariel or the evil sea witch. There’s the sexy siren or the hideous swamp nymph. Let your imagination come up with some kind of interesting character.
The better you know the personality of your mermaid, the easier it will be to create a great looking mermaid costume. One thing will lead to another.
If you need some inspiration, have a look at the mermaid costumes here.

The Fabric:

You should pay a visit to your local fabric store. It’s great fun to browse through all the different materials.
For a mermaid costume you should stick to watery colors like blue and green of course, but also purple, turquoise shades of brown and flashes of gold. The underwater world can be very colorful. Shiny fabric like silk or satin give a nice wet look and sequins resemble scales.

The Top:

Anything goes, depending on how much you want to show. A tank top is just as good as a one-piece or two-piece bathing suit.
You can get really creative here and decorate it with seashells, sequins, rhinstones, starfish or a fishing net.
If you don’t have any of these at hand you can also cut out starfish shaped patterns from the fabric you use for your tail and sew them onto your cups.

The Tail:

This is the challenging part of making a mermaid costume.
If you have a straight, tight skirt, the easiest way would be to add some extra material at the bottom on either side, to create the shape of a fishtail.

The other common design is to have a tail extension which hangs down from the back of the skirt. If you don’t want it to drag across the floor all night and people stepping on it, you should add a sleeve or loop to the end of your tail. When walking you simply slip your wrist through the loop and the mermaid tail will be off the ground.

A third idea which is very creative and not seen very often is to have a tutu like skirt to be the water, and sew a tail shaped pattern onto your waist, which lies on top of the skirt. The tutu could also be a rock.
Now it’s all about decorating like you did with the top. It also looks nice if you add more fins or wavy stripes of fabric to your mermaid tail.

The Make-Up:

As you have thought about your mermaid’s personality, you probably know already what kind of make up she needs.
I would generally a pale skin and watery colors like dark blue, green and silver.
Sequins glues around your eyes and temples mimic scales and glitter will give you a wet effect. You could also paint a starfish on your cheek.
Maybe you can find colored contact lenses that give you a mystical look.

The Hair:

I can’t really imagine a mermaid with short hair. If you can’t either, you might need a wig.
It doesn’t always have to be red like Disney’s little mermaid Ariel. Blond, turquoise, green and blue hair also looks great on mermaids.
Another great tip I’ve read somewhere are dread locks to mimic salt encrusted hair.

Accessories:

Here’s a list of accessories that go well with a mermaid costume.
A scepter, a wand or even a trident if you’re a god like mermaid with magical powers.
A conch shell or a treasure chest.
Seashell jewelry like hair clips, bracelet and matching earrings. A shell-tiara. Pearls. Hawaiian leis.
Seaweed imitations.
Seashell decorated sandals if you don’t want to walk barefoot.

I hope you have fun making your mermaid costume, and feel free to send me a picture.

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