Mermaid tail blankets

For Christmas I originally wanted to make my twin nieces crocheted mermaid tails. Well, the yarn situation didn't pan out so I decided to sew them instead. I've never really been that great at sewing...I went online to see if I could find a pattern, after about 15 minutes I gave up and decided to make my own.

I ended up purchasing the fabric at Walmart. My usual go to spots for fabric are Joann's or Hobby Lobby but we have had some pretty rough weather here lately so we decided not to go too far from home. B did a great job and helped me pick out the fabric.

The inside of the tails are lined with a super soft fleece fabric. The fins have batting inside them so they aren't as "floppy". I used freezer paper to create my own pattern...as you can probably tell, definitely not professional but made with a ton of love.

So I began by cutting out all the pieces...

You will need a front and a back, that's right 2 of everything (in my case 4 of everything since I'm making these for 2 very special girls).

The first thing I sewed on each of them was the fin. I turned the fabric so the wrong side of the fabric was facing the outside world. I sewed everything but the top of the fin. After, I turned it right side out and put in my batting (I cut it into the same shape as the fin with my handy dandy freezer paper pattern). Once I got the batting in, I sewed a couple lines on either side of the fin to make it look,,,,,cooler I suppose, it also doubled in keeping the batting from moving around.

I still left the fin top open. So next I sewed the sides of the blanket. Here's how I laid out my pieces. First, lay down the fleece lining to where the pretty side (right side of the fabric) will face the world (I use the term "world" because inside/outside seems repetitive). On top of that you will lay down your outer fabric (I chose a green scaly looking fabric) but you will lay this one down to where the wrong side is facing the world and you will be looking at the pretty side. 3rd layer, another outer fabric..only this time the pretty side of the fabric will be facing the other pretty fabric from layer 2. Finally the 4th layer will be the fleece lining with the pretty side again facing you. I'm sure you were clever enough to come up with all that on your own but it took me a good minute to make sure everything was laid out properly, again sewing isn't my strong suit.

Alright, so as I said I sewed up each side of the tail.

Once that was done, while the blanket is still inside out I thought it was a good time to attach the fin. So I took the fin and slide it inside the blanket (the blanket bottom end was facing up and the fin end with the batting showing was also facing up) and ran a couple zig zag stiches across it to make sure it didn't fall off. Then I turned the blanket right side out and what do you know....my fin is attached. The last thing I did was hem the actual top part of the blanket. Here's some pictures of how they turned out.

Nice and soft inside...

They may look a little funny all spread out, my son commented on how "huge" they were...but really it's supposed to be a blanket with room to spare....not stuck to you closely (I'm a bit claustrophobic so up close and personal is not my thing)