Sewing day #1

First Sewing day :-) The materials for the blue mermaid:

cotton fabric with scallop print, royal blue organza, light turquoise organza, blue lining, sea shell bra, faux pearls in different shades of blue, lots of 6mm sequins: lilac, green-turquoise (probably won't use them, they are a bit too greenish), dark purple, dark blue, iridescent lavender, light blue, iridescent baby blue, dark blue holographic, blue-turquoise and sheer iridescent. Plus: lots of blue nailpolish to paint the shell bra.
For the mermaid tail, I laid the royal blue organza over the cotton fabric. It makes the scallops look more blue-ish and creates a shimmery effect.
Here are some in progress photos. I'm bad at taking pictures and with a flash it's even worse, I know. Sorry for that.

I pinned the pattern on cotton + organza, cut through both layers...

...and serged layers together. I did that twice (the other piece on left side of fabrics) and stitched the pieces together at center seam. Also cut the lining but there are no pictures of that step. Then I cut a strip of royal blue organza, serged all edges and pinned it in pleats on one side of the tail. This is where the "skirt" will open and I think it looks nicer, with a ruffle hiding a bit of the mermaid's actual legs ;-)


Here the difference between the cotton (right) and cotton with a layer of organza (left) shows clearly!


Then I cut a narrower strip of the light-turquoise organza, pinned it in smaller pleats on top of the left side of the blue ruffle and stitched trough all layers. Hopefully this will add some depth and contrast to the first ruffle without showing too much. I'm going to do the same to the other opening side but I will finish this tomorrow as I just realized I pinned the ruffles to the wrong side of fabric *facepalm* :-D

Update!

The final casting process is finished and the rehearsals went well so far. I'm even learning a small waltz choreography for the title song of Beauty and the Beast and a mermaid choreography for Under the Sea . I have to admit that I'm much more of a singer than a dancer but as I'm very dedicated and practice a lot, I hope that the result will be fine :-) There are about 2 months left and it's time to start with the costumes!!! On my to-do list I have 5 mermaid costumes (for the two of us playing Ariel and alternating as mersisters and three other girls playing mersisters) , 1 ballgown for Belle and several other stuff that has to be finished for the shows. As there are five mermaid tails that I need to finish before the deadline in about three weeks, I decided to abandon the idea of the Broadway replica and to try with something easier and less time consuming. We decided on a simpler design and found a pattern to go with.

It's Simplicity 4043 mermaid Costume. We will only be doing the mermaidtail and combine it with seashell, starfish or coral bra. We already got all the fabrics and notions and I will start sewing today!