Making Ariel's Mermaid Outfit

I decided to get all crafty and make a Little Mermaid outfit for Eliza's Ariel doll. I bought her the Ariel doll a few months ago when we were walking through Walmart. It was already cheap and then they took even more off because there was a smudge on her cheek. Anyway, the doll came in a dress because it was Ariel after she became human. Eliza has loved playing with her, but I thought she'd love it if she could also dress Ariel up like a mermaid.

I also needed to use the doll in my cake for Eliza's birthday, and the doll needed at least the purple bikini because I didn't want to just frost one on. So I made the bikini out of a shiny purple ribbon about a week before Eliza's birthday. It wasn't until her birthday that I decided to go ahead and also make a tail so that once we took the doll out of the cake, she could play with Ariel the mermaid, not just Ariel the human girl.

So here is the step-by-step process in which I made the mermaid tail:

I started with some cheap green fabric, some green thread, and some green sequin elastic.

I measured and cut the green fabric by using the doll as a guide. I'll be honest, it actually took three different attempts to get it to the right size. Then I sewed down one side of the fabric and ironed the seam.

Again, using the doll as a guide, I cut the sequin elastic into a belt and sewed the ends together by hand stitching. I reinforced the stitching with a hot glue gun.

I hand stitched the sequin belt to the top of the tail. Then I created a fin by cutting out two pieces of green fabric in the shape of a fin, sewing them together like sides facing each other, pressed the seam after turning right side out, and stuffed with cotton balls. Would have used regular quilt stuffing, but couldn't find my roll of it anywhere. Then I sewed and hot glued the tail onto the fin and then I hot glued the sequin elastic to the tail.

And here is the finished product.

Eliza loves her mermaid outfit for her Ariel. It was a fun birthday surprise for her.