Swimmable Mermaid Tail

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Kaia has been waiting, and waiting, for this project to happen.  She picked out her fabric last month, but we had trouble getting the fins.  They finally arrived today, so I had to get right on it!

Behold – Mermaid Kaia!


This was a fairly simple project to do.  We got the swim fins from Metro Swim Shop (yes, you read correctly, I said ‘fins’.  I got this fin for myself and will make my own tail as soon as I get the fabric.  The description says it’s for kids, but it fits up to a women’s size 8 shoe)

First, I had Kaia put on her fin and traced her lower half (from waist down) on a large piece of paper.  This gave me the basic shape of her body.  When I was tracing the fin part, I had her sit up for that the fin was flat on the floor.  The tracing is not the proper measurement of the pattern, it simply give me a shape to go by as I mark in the proper measurements.

Then, I measured Kaia around her waist, hips, thighs, knees, shins, and ankles.  I took each of these measurements and divided in two, since you will have 2 sides to your fin.  Ex: her waist was 21  so half that is 10.5

On the paper, along the tracing of her body, I marked the measurements in the proper places.  Ex:  at the waist of the tracing, I measured out 10.5 inches, marking on either side of the tracing, so that the center of the tracing is also the center of the measurements.  Do this with all your measurements and then connect the markings.  The markings will probably be an inch or two out from the original tracing.  Use the tracing as a guide of how to shape the pattern.  Does this make sense??

Then, cut your pattern out.

Take your chosen fabric and fold it in half.  This way you will cut out both sides at one time.

Lay the pattern on the fabric and pin it down well through both layers of fabric.  Make sure there are no wrinkles.

Cut out your fabric.

Take the pattern off and, if they aren’t already, put the right sides together (meaning the sides that will be showing once you are done should now face each other).  Pin the fabric together really well so that it doesn’t slip or bunch when you sew it up.

Then sew along the sides leaving the waist open, and one side of the fin open (see finished picture below)  I left 1/4 inch seam allowance on the first run and had her try it on.  Then Iwent back over the edge with a zig zag stitch to finish it off.

To get the mono fin into the tail, you will need a hole big enough to slip it through.  The adult monofins are a little more flexible and might fit through the waist hole and be worked down to the tail.  Kaia’s fin is pretty stiff, so we left a hole in the bottom of the tail for the monofin to slide into and then put 4 pearl snaps to close it off.  I zigzagged the open edges to prevent any fraying.

At this point I checked to be sure the monofin fit into the opening and had Kaia try it on to be sure it fit well, and figured out where she wanted the waist level to be.  It was a little loose in the waist, so I took it in a bit.  You could make an elastic waist band, but the fabric Kaia chose hugged her body well once I took it in, and didn’t need any elastic.

With the right sides still facing, fold the waist band down (wrong sides together) to where you want it to be on your body (below the navel, at the navel… etc.) and finish the seam.  I did two lines of a wavy stitch to make it look like scales.

Kaia’s really happy with how it turned out and wore it to bed the first night (fins and all).  You can see in this picture on the bottom left of her tail, where there are snaps that open up the tail to let the monofin in.  You can even see a little of the pink fin sticking out.  I want to fix that but Kaia said “no”.

I’ll post pictures once mine is done!

63 thoughts on “Swimmable Mermaid Tail”

  1. Oh my good heavens…that cracks me up!!

    Is it dangerous? I mean, it must not be if you made it…but I remember trying to swim “like a mermaid” when I was a kid, and I had a hard time keeping afloat! Then again, I was never the strongest swimmer in the pool. LOL

    Great job!!!!

  2. Kaia’s not a good swimmer yet, so I hold onto her when she’s in the water. I told her that she couldn’t really swim around in it until she was a strong swimmer. She mainly stays in the shallows or on the side and flips her fin 🙂

  5. That is the coolest project for kids I have seen in a while! I’ll have to share this post with Panda and Frog. I know Frog will be begging for her Mermaid tail since mermaids are her theme of late.
    I recieved your card and must thank you for the ideas you included for your pan, I never thought of a few of those and may have to include a few in with my video segments- I will be crediting you for the great ideas!
    Now I best go price some fins!

  7. That is so cool! What kind of material did you use? The pool let her wear her fins? So cool. Going to make myself one. i’m a super strong swimmer!

  8. Hey Araik!
    I found some swim suit/boxing shorts material at a local fabric shop. There are lots of places on line that you can order cool prints. I actually got the fabric for my own tail from http://spandexworld.com/
    The pool had no problem with it. They were all excited to see how it worked 🙂

  10. Oh I frogot to tell you that I have extra fabric on the end of the tail. I usto live in Hawi’i, and I swam with giant sea turtals! My dream is to be a mermaid and to swim with dolphins!(and breath under water!)

  15. Emma, I got her fabric from the local store and I believe it was about $9/yard. I got the fabric for my tail from http://spandexworld.com and it was $11/yard. But I only needed 2 yards, so it still wasn’t bad at all.

  16. OHMIGOSH I’ve been looking everywhere for a website that tells you EXACTLTY how to do some thing instead of something like this: Step 1 cut out pattern Step 2 sew it Step 3 swim. I am starting a mermaid series on youtube this summer called Tails Of Teenage Mermaids. I’m writing the script and making costumes. Its hard work and I’m only 13!! Look out this summer for Tails Of Teenage Mermaids. I play Saphire!

  17. Woe!! that is too awesome me and my friend are working on a video that includes mermaid tails!! it will be awesome!!! good job!!!!

  20. Whoa! I am in the process of making my own mermaid tail! That ones awesome!

  22. Ok thankyou so much for this, I’m 24 and have been dying to get a mermaid tail for years but they can be so darn expensive, i disagree with needing to be a strong swimmer, i actually never learnt to swim and as a child when i was taught i refused to pay attention instead putting all my effort into swimming like a mermaid a=underwater, due to that i can swim like a mermaid perfect but can’t do much more then doggie paddle hahahaha, thank you for a great project…although i think instead of clips i would prefer zippers 😛

  23. Thanks for this post, i was reading some instructions on making the pattern on another site and could not figure out what they meant by dividing the measurements in half. your explanation helped a lot. I am making one of theses for my 9yo this week. Hers will be open at end and will see how much she likes it then maybe move on to a fin. I didn’t want to buy one off the web with a fin off the bat because I am worried I would spend a chunk of money & she would try it on and instantly not like it or use it. I want one too!

  26. That is amazing!!! I am going to make me one of those!!! Thanks for the idea.

  27. Omg this is awesome but i cant find the fabric anywhere you should start selling them you would defenatly get alot of money for them with the money you could make more then sell them or give them as presents or competition prizes 😀 lol

  29. Thank you, me and my friend are trying to make a mermaid show on YouTube, but all the tails we found online were WAY too expensive.

  30. How do you get the mono fin in the tail? Do you lay it on the fabric and then sew the other piece on or do you side it in afterwards.

  41. Hmmm…. I guess it’s possible to use a iron on seam tape, but I don’t know how well that would hold up to the pull on the seam, or to the water…

  43. You can use any monofin. Just trace around the fin when you are making your pattern. For my own tail, I have a rounded monofin. So, I as I traced around it, I drew the shape of a mermaid fin. Once it was all sewn up, it looked the same as my daughters, but fit the rounded fin. Does that make sense?

  44. What did the fin cost? Also do you tho k I can order one off of some website?

  46. I made mermaid tails for my granddaughters and they love them. I left the bottom open in the back so that they would be able to walk around if they had them on. I was afraid they might fall if they couldn’t get their feet out. I didn’t use plastic fins, I just used heavy interfacing in them.

  47. VERY adorable ! You did a great job! She looks just like a mermaid! My little girl would love that:)

  48. You did an awesome job! My only question is, can you swim in it? ?

  49. Yes! You can!! It’s made with bathing suit material, so it’s nice and snug.

  50. I have always wanted a mermaid tail…….. even though I’m a teenager, it would still be AMAZINGLY fun. Maybe for use at the beach, since the pool doesn’t allow you to bring toys/flippers : (

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