Mermaid in Summer

One of my all-time favorite projects is the mermaid. My daughter still loves mermaids. I know how they connect with children in a magical and delightful way. And they inspire swimming! Because mermaids learn to put their faces in the water and hold their breath for swimming. Merfolk are perfect for summer adventures.

Our first book included a tutorial with photos and patterns for a mermaid and a fancy mermaid (with more colors in the tail). I recently found the mermaid that appeared in the book. And she charmed me all over again.

One of my puzzles with creating her was figuring out how to make the tail without a lot of sewing. By modifying the same design as our pants-patterns, the tail could fold over for success with beginning sewers. My second puzzle was her hat, because I couldn’t imagine a mermaid wearing the tall triangle-shaped hat. A crown, though, that would be perfect for mermaids. I know that the hair can be on its own, but it can look a little clunky with glue, so a crown or hat helps to make the top of the head look better. In fact, I made one where I didn’t glue the crown on their head, and the child loved taking the crown off and putting it back on their mermaid. So that’s an option, too.

Of course, these felt mermaids don’t go swimming in water for real. Felt and glue and wood doesn’t enjoy being wet. They still enjoy many summer adventures, including building them houses beside the water.

Another thing that I’ve learned while raising my own kids is that boys love merfolk just as much as girls. Boys tend to be a little more self-conscious about the fascination at a certain age where they may feel more judged for loving water-folk. This may not be the case for children in your world, and certainly don’t make an issue of it if the kids around you don’t resist the idea of boys getting to enjoy merfolk as much as girls (it may be a cultural bias that may or may not be in your community).

Boys may be just fine with a mermaid (after all, who says they have to play with gender-matching toys?). Girls get to play with boy dolls without issues. So boys can play with mermaids if they want. Or you can make a merman by giving it shorter hair (or no hair) if that matches their idea of “boy”. Though they may be just fine with boys with longer hair, too.

I encourage asking children how they want to make an idea their own. Black felt? Zombie face? Why not? Let them make their own toys and see what ideas they bring into the world. I look forward to their creativity.

Make your own mermaid doll with tutorials, photos, and patterns in the Forest Fairy Crafts book by Lenka Vodicka-Paredes and Asia Currie

Happy summer!

A Very Mermaid Christmas

Few people know that Christmas is popular even under the sea. Mermaids wear festive hats just for the occasion!

Many years, I create an ornament that shows whatever is enchanting my kids that year. From the Orange Fairy when my son was obsessed with all things Orange, to the Peppermint Fairy from the year my daughter danced as a Peppermint in our local Nutcracker ballet, the ornaments are fun to make, and even more fun to remember. 

The peppermint fairy was a gift the year my daughter danced as a peppermint in the Nutcracker

Helping kids make fairies is fun. However, anytime I help them, I take the back-seat in order to support their ideas and choices. So giving myself room to create any fairy that I want is tremendous freedom.

My daughter has a (slight) mermaid obsession. We included mermaids in the Forest Fairy Craft book. They were summer mermaids with crowns. How could I modify the mermaid for the holidays?

I wanted a tail that curved, which took finagling. A few trial and error attempts where it looked too bulky or gigantic. I always draw pieces on paper first to cut out and test shapes. Then I use test felt (inexpensive felt in any color) which I can sew together with a few little stitches to see if the scale works. Once it does, time to create! 

Both my daughter and nice love turquoise, so I used that as an inspiration color for both mermaids. 

Using just a wee strip of faux fur on their hat was a fun carryover from other fairies that I was working on at the time (Saint Nicholaus). The Faux Fur is a little tricky to sew, hard to get the needle through, so it's definitely an adult quest. You could create a similar look with a strip of white felt.

I also use metallic thread similar to this one for that added sparkle. It's tricky to sew with the thread so it winds around their outfit. 

The girls loved their mermaids! And it's a joy to see them again year after year.

Happy creating, one and all! 

*this post does contain affiliate links. Should you choose to purchase through these links, a small amount returns to the Forest while your price remains the same. Thank you :)

A Mermaid Birthday Gift

Summer isn't done here. The sun is still warm, even though the air gets cool in the evenings. We were recently invited to a birthday celebration for a girl what loved mermaids. The entire party had an amazing attention to under-the-sea details. I decided to bring a little mermaid doll as our gift.

I sprinkled sequins along the tail. For her crown, I wanted to her to remember this birthday. She was turning nine. I sewed the star to the center first. Then I moved to one side and sewed four sequins. I tied the thread and started a new thread on the other side of the crown to sew four more sequins- nine in all. The extra steps tying knots saved me the trouble of measuring out how to make sequins even across the crown. I could have made light dots with a marker to space out sequins as well.

Her hair was a little tricky because these fluffy yarns tend to fall apart at the ends (because they are often a few different threads wound together on the skein). I usually solve this by creating braids, which tie off the ends. This way, if it unravels, the yarn is still held together in the braid.

However, for this mermaid, I wanted long, loose hair. So I tied a knot at the end of each strand. You can see the little knot in the blue strand of yarn in photos above. Tying those knots may sounds like a lot, but I only use about six strands of yarn, which is twelve knots in total. You can see the technique I use to glue hair onto the bead in our book. The fuzzy yarn is nice and forgiving about hiding the little knots. I may show the technique in another tutorial for those crafters who love the long, loose hair.

Best wishes on your next adventures, little mermaid!

You can learn how to make your own mermaids with our book, Forest Fairy Crafts. 

The links in the article are affiliate links. If you decide to purchase a book, a small amount returns to the Forest while your price remains the same. Thank you for supporting us! Happy crafting!

Summer Mermaid

Ah, summer. Your long days that go so quickly! With kids home from school and temps soaring, we spend more time in the water than on land :)

Summer is for mermaids.

We are slightly obsessed with Fin Fun Mermaid Tails over here :) as anyone who follows my Instagram knows well. My daughter and niece adore becoming mermaids.

The next best thing to being a little mermaid is making a little mermaid. I am super-lucky that my niece spends a few days a week with us in the summertime. We play outisde, go to the river, and craft together. We call it Camp Lenkaland :)

My daughter needed Forest Fairies for an entry in the county fair (more on that later). While my daughter sewed her fairies, my niece made a mermaid.

So sweet :). These mermaids aren't for swimming in real water, of course, but she's already joined my niece's collection of Very Special Things. We can create magic :)

Yes, summer is fleeting. Yet the memories last forever :)