Handmade Christmas: Three Mermaid Tails and A Whale's Tail

 

One of the biggest hits of Christmas for each of the kiddos were these mermaid tail/whale's tail blankets I made for each of the kiddos.  They seem to absolutely love them.  Apparently, they even sleep inside them in their beds under the blankets.  Who knew?

I saw the tutorial a few weeks before Christmas on the See Kate Sew blog.  I've been poking around her site at least since the Great Masking began in March, and I've made dozens of masks from her origami mask pattern.  I actually think I first saw the pattern for the mermaid tails on the SewCanShe blog but I couldn't find it again when I went looking.  

Kate's post said she made her pattern to fit her 5-year old, and since I have a 5-year old and a 4-year old in the family, I started there.  Joann's had fleece on sale 50% off, and I even found a number of remnants that were an additional 50% off.  For the 8-year old, I added an additional row of fleece, or about another 8 inches.

For the 11-year old, I added two additional rows, as she is quite tall.  

I added zippers to all of them because I didn't want any of them to have difficulty getting themselves out of their tails if the need arose, but honestly, I don't think any of the children ever used them.

Kate even had a baby size mermaid tail sleeper on her site that I just had to make for the littlest, although I didn't get it done until a couple of days after Christmas.  As you can tell, this was made from scraps from the other tails.  I made the 12-18 month size for my 2-month old granddaughter as she is so very long, but I might have overdone it just a touch.  She seems to be enjoying it, regardless.

And here are most of the kiddos watching a movie in their tails with their Squishimals (a gift from the other grandma) as pillows.  

As you can see, even the dollies got in the act.  More on the dolly sleeping bags tomorrow.