When I sewed the Project Under the Sea outfits last summer I ambitiously cut out a matching mermaid doll for each girl. They got stuffed into a ziploc bag and banished to a tote in the closet. We are doing a Sewing School series on Project Run and Play this month, so I decided this week that I would pull that bag out and sew one mermaid each day in Instagram stories. It does help to make a public commitment like that. At least I take mine very seriously.

I enjoyed being able to make some variations from the original pattern since it has already been tested. They are all very different and, although there are many mistakes, I am pleased with the outcomes.

As a refresher, here are the original outfits…

So let’s go over the details of each one…

The purple, felt hair matched the original headband I made for my niece. I cut and stitched it to look wavy but skipped any braids or ponytails. The shirt was an upcycle and I only had a tiny little rectangle left, so I sewed a satin bow that is handstitched in place.

Her tail is crooked because I accidentally snipped a hole when notching the corner so I had to sew inside a bit to fix it. I really like how it looks, though. I might do it intentionally sometime.

This hair was made of velvet scraps and adding stitching lines to the hair worked really well. I also created a long, side braid. It was still pretty plain so I added a red, seed bead necklace.

Oh, and I also want to point out how I added extra quilting to the fins on all of these. It feels really cool with the swim fabric!

I was feeling ambitious and wanted to try yarn hair. It’s… a lot! My niece is going to love it though! She is probably the only one who will still play with a mermaid doll anyway.

It was also at this point that I realized that I made the HTV faces a little too big. Oops!

I gave this mermaid lime green, fleece hair with cute ponytails. I love it, even if my kids think it is strange! She was pretty plain so I used the Project Under the Sea digital designs to make a glitter iron on star for the front.

My daughter had an opinion on this one. She wanted the curly minky stuff with space buns hair. I am covered in pink fuzz. She also wanted sleeves to match her original Morgana Zip-Up.

I added a glitter HTV shell from the Digital Designs to the back, but drew the line at hand stitching “Mermaid On Duty” but since I had hand embroidered the sleeping eyelashes I said she couldn’t be “on duty.”

I wrote a post for the new Project Run and Play blog with 10 Tips for Sewing Dolls and Stuffies if you want to give it a try!

Pattern:
Ocean Friends Bundle 3