Mermaid Craft: Felt Mermaid

With all this extra time we have, it seems only right to dedicate some of it to crafting. For Christmas, I was gifted a delightful Make Your Own Mermaid felt kit by Groves Ltd - thank you Emma. I found myself with a free day and decided to have a go.

The kit

All the pieces were pre-cut and everything I needed had been provided. The best kind of craft project - the ones which do not rely on my cutting ability. The instructions were nice and simple, easy to follow. The only hiccough I really had was knowing how much thread I needed to use. It came with bundles of five threads and advised using two with the metal needle for detail but did not specify with the plastic needle and pre-punched holes. Inevitably, I tried both. Two threads worked fine throughout.

6. Sew on the hair. (Guess who forgot to take a photo!)

I have to admit, I gave up on the plastic needle in the end. It kept bending and was difficult to punch through the existing hole. I figured it was included as a safety measure for little hands and, as a grown up (hah!), I felt I could get away with just using the proper needle. Plus, my hands were so sweaty that the plastic one just kept sliding through my fingers! Some of the pieces could have been glued on, like the mermaid tail, but not having anyone in this house under the age of ten I don't have any PVA glue. I had to persist with the sewing and it probably would have cost far too much of my patience to stick with the cumbersome plastic needle. But like I said, a large majority of the sewing in this project is with the pre-punched holes and the blunt needle is safer for smaller hands.

To get the stuffing into the nooks and crannies, I used a pencil as it fit better into the openings than my podgey fingers. I didn't even attempt to get any in the arms and just stuffed extra into her hips to make her nice and thicc. (Pronounced thi-kkkkk-kkkkk according to my sister.) The pencil made for an effective stuffing tool, I was able to get loads of stuffing into my mermaid. And there is still plenty left over. I have been saving sewing projects on Pinterest for ages, I might actually get around to doing one now. Also, I have some gorgeous fabric I bought in Oswestry last year which I have still to make anything from. There is definitely not enough stuffing left over from this kit, but another sister was kind enough to donate some insulation stuffing from her Mindful Chef deliveries for my sewing needs. 

Nearly finished

One more thing to admit: I did not follow the instructions to the letter. In the effort to do things a little differently, I gave my mermaid a bigger smile, flipped her hair, and forwent the addition of beads to her hair. As I have already mentioned, my hands were so sweaty! My little study gets rather warm and I learned from my pole dancing days that my hands get uber sweaty. There were other factors contributing to my laziness - my SGA episode had finished, it was nearly time to make dinner, I'd had enough... the usual reasons.

Can you see why I gave up on it?!

All in all, it was a fun little project. And if one of these finds its way under your tree this coming Christmas, be very happy! My felt mermaid will of course be gracing my tree this year, but also just chilling about the house until then. For now she is hanging on my wardrobe.

And of course, it's time to name her! Post some suggestions in the comments/on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter, and I'll get a poll going next week.

Do you have any craft kits gathering dust in your cupboards? Any suggestions for what I should make next? Lemme know below!

Listening to: Earth Day 🌍