I share my mermaid obsession with my friend Vanii. Over the past year we were constantly sending any Mer-art we could find to each other. We had been plotting to make mermaid costumes for such a long time and aimed to have them completed by Anime Expo 2007. This costume was a new challenge for me.

All around we wanted to have natural look like this mermaid had found things in the sea and pieced them together to make her outfit. For inspiration we went to the beach 'Point Dune' looking at the shapes of the big kelp leaves that washed up on the beach. The irregular pin tucks on the top mimic the veins that run through the kelp leaves. During one of our trips to the fabric district we found these glass beads that reminded us of kelp perfect for the necklace.

I wanted to make the tail easy to walk around in with out making it look like a skirt. The solution was sewing a two way zipper at the back of the tail. When she wanted to sit down to pose for pictures all she had to do was zip up the back. I also wanted to have scales instead of a sleek fabric tail. In order to do this I cut out strips of the green pleater and pinched each scale then overlapping them I sewed them on to the tail. I made the tail fin the same way I make my fabric faerie wings.

I'm really pleased with the way this turned out, I had so much fun working on this with Vanii. A special thanks to Laura for taking these beautiful photos for us!


Cosplayer: Vanii
Worn at: Anime Expo 2007
Photos by: Laura