Sprinkle the Creepy Elf Mermaid
/
Since we have officially passed Thanksgiving, our house has plunged into the annual ritual of hosting a creepy elf that keeps the kids in line (some of the time). That's right, we are "those people" who have an Elf on the Shelf. We named her Sprinkle and she is a source both excitement and joy mixed with frustration and lack of ideas. Sure, you can look up ideas on Pinterest, but a lot of those include first making a mess which I would then have to clean up. I don't love messes and I enjoy cleaning even less, so we tend to stick to low maintenance Elf shenanigans. That is until now...
My 6 year old is still a believer and has been excited for weeks about the return of Sprinkle. She is also a huge fan of all things mermaid. So in my brainstorming for ideas on what to do with our little friend this year, I decided that maybe Sprinkle would like to spend some time transformed into a mermaid. She was a HIT! My daughter was thrilled that Sprinkle sewed herself a mermaid tail and just knew it was because she loved mermaids too. Luckily, this tail was a super quick and easy project. Including figuring out the pattern, it took me maybe 30 minutes to finish up Sprinkles tail. And in the spirit of spreading joy and the love of mermaids, we are offering the pattern piece for the mermaid tale for here. We hope it brings a smile to the face of your little believer like it did mine!
To sew up the pattern, you'll need a scrap of knit fabric (I used a metallic stretchy scale print I picked up at Joann's last Halloween). The fabric does not need a lot of stretch but does need some to allow it to be pulled on. Also, since knit does not unravel, it's ideal for quick projects like this were you don't want to finish off your seams.
To make the tail, I cut 2 tails out using the pattern pieces and then sewed them, using a .25" seam allowance, right sides together. I used a stretch stitch on my sewing machine and did not finish the seams. Clip the inside of the V and trim the points, the turn right side out. To finish, fold down the top edge by .25" and stitch around the opening. I put an elf foot in each side of the tail.
I also made a little tube top for Sprinkle to complete her ensemble. To make the top, I cut a strip of purple knit that was 5.75" long (in the direction of the stretch) by 1.75". Fold the strip, right sides together, lengthwise. Then sew the long edge using a .25" seam allowance. Turn the "tube" you just sewed right side out. Then overlap the short edges by .25" making a loop and stitch over the overlapped edges using a zigzag stitch. I also added a little gather in the center of the front (opposite the overlapped seam) to make it look al little more like my daughters favorite mermaid princess. I just slipped that over the feet and pulled it up into place. Easy peasy!
We are having a lot of fun with our mermaid elf. So far she has posed with her Dinglehopper and she also snacked on a seaweed snack. Tonight she is perfecting her high dive into the bathroom sink, just like a mermaid diving into the ocean. We hope you sew up a mermaid tail for your elf as well and share its antics with us on our Facebook page.
Happy sewing!
