Mermaid & Fisherman Couple Costume

Every year my boyfriend and I think of a couple costume, this year we were drawing blanks, I knew I wanted to make mine as I do every year. I was looking online at costumes and saw the mermaid. I thought that would be a fun one to make, plus I personally haven't seen a mermaid costume. I designed and made this mermaid costume & the boyfriend a fisherman, a good catch ;)
See the steps below:
1. I created the pattern pieces and since this is a costume didn't need to be perfect so I used the front and back skirt as same pieces. The waist band angles in the front, to create a V shape. The "Fins" are a triangle shape, with pleating at the center point.
2. Cut out the pieces. Cut 2 for the skirt (front & back) I used a teal stretchy material I found at a $1.99 fabric store! You only need about 1yd or 1 1/2yd to be on the safe side. (I already had 10yds since it only was 1.99yd!) I believe its polyester/spandex. & cut 2 pieces in the same fabric for the waist band. One is used for the lining so its clean finished and gives better support to stay up when its thicker. For the "fins" I used tulle which is pretty cheap! I used 3 colors since I couldn't find a teal I bought a light blue & green and when over laying them it was close to the the color of the fabric! For the 3rd color I bought purple for contrast as it will go with my top! Org was gonna have it at the bottom to peak out but I changed my design like 5 times no joke and that didn't work out anymore so its now on top love it better! For the amount of tulle I bought 4.5yds of green 4.5 yds of blue which gave me 4 layers of each color for each fin a total of 16 layers (8 each side) for the purple I got 2yds org enough for 2 layers but since I changed my design last min I had extra so had enough to make 3 layers each fin.
3. SEW SEW SEW! 1st I sewn the skirt side seams together then I fit it to my self and did that for like 3 times before it was perfect fit :/ then I attached the waist band and "Fins"! No need to hem as there is just the fins at the bottom and tulle doesn't fray!
4. Paint the scales! Yes I painted all of those gold scales! (Took me about 2.5 days! With lost of breaks of course)
5. Work on the bra! I bought a $4.99 purple bra! Good deal!! And glued seashells & pearls onto the bra, the white shells looked boring so I painted them gold. I also did a string of pearls to hang under the bra. The bra came with a purple bow put I took it off and added my own "bow" it's a seashell with the inside facing out and put a pearl inside of the shell - got a bag of seashells at Joanns for about $2 with a coupon, and still have enough to make about 4 more bras!
6. Hair Piece, Yes I even made that! Got a blank hair clip and added extra tulle fabric and glued the shells on top w the same pearl string at my bra. Also glued pearls to the tulle.
7. Be a mermaid!! I used pastel chalk to color my hair, I recommend to not do this. It makes your hair very dry and hard to brush as it tangles right after you brush it. Plus I got green color everywhere! But there is a bunch of youtube videos on how to do that if you're daring. I also tried curling my hair but my hair never curls I have no idea why I even tried it! (2nd costume party I just used moose to scrunch it and put it as a side pony, and only a lil colored ends this time!) For the make-up I used blue & purple eyeshadow w a gold powder to top that off and the rest of my body! I added some scales to my face using a fishnet stocking! If interested there are plenty of youtube videos on that as well! For the shoes I wore gold sandals that I already owned. Then get dressed and there I am a Mermaid - if interested my boyfriend was the fisherman and we found the yellow rain/sea suit at a liquidation store for $5.99 can’t beat that! Oh and his beard is real!
The total cost for my costume w makeup and hair products to be less than $30, love coupons!