DIY Little Mermaid Family Costumes

***To see the tutorial for the DIY Little Mermaid Tutu Skirt, click here.***

Today I'll wrap up what has become a series of Halloween-related posts, and we can officially move on into November. Yesterday I showed you how I made my daughter Ellie's DIY No-Sew Mermaid Tutu Costume, and today I'll show you how I made my Ursula costume, my husband's Prince Eric costume and my dog's King Triton costume. Let's do this!

DIY ADULT URSULA COSTUME

Supplies and Cost Breakdown:

Tutu Skirt:

• 2 rolls purple tulle @ $2.99/each = $6 (from Joann Fabrics)
• 1 package 3/4" non-roll ribbed elastic = $3.29 (Joann Fabrics)

Tentacles:

• Four pairs black trouser socks @$1/each = $4 (Dollar General)
• One 8.5x11 piece purple felt = $0.25
• One 12-oz package PolyFil batting = $3.99

Necklace:

• One package yellow Crayola Model Magic Clay = $4.99
• Cord = $1.50

Items I already had, so no additional cost:

• Wire dry cleaner hangers for wire in tentacles
• Fabric glue
• Needle and thread
• Black tank top
• Black leggings
• Makeup
• Gray wig (from a previous Halloween)

TOTAL COST: $24.02

Instructions:

I really only made three pieces for my costume: the tentacles, a tutu skirt to go underneath them (optional, of course), and the shell necklace.

For the tutu skirt, I followed the same method that I used for Ellie's Little Mermaid Tutu Skirt, as described yesterday, except I knotted the tulle around an elastic band instead of into a crochet headband.

The tentacles were a little more involved, but still really easy. Instead of going to the trouble of actually sewing and stuffing my own tentacles (I wanted as little sewing as possible because I am a rather poor seamstress), I picked up four pairs of black trouser socks at the Dollar store. They were a good length for my needs and ta-da! Minimal sewing required. I also picked up some batting to stuff them with and some felt to make the suckers. I also used some wire hangers I had laying around the house to make the tentacles bendy.

I started by stuffing each of the trouser socks with the batting.

Then, I inserted a wire hanger into each one, trimming the wire as necessary and giving the tentacle a little bit of bend.

Next, I cut out small circles from my piece of purple felt. I traced a water bottle cap to keep them uniform, and I used about six circles per tentacle, so 48 circles in total. I glued them to the underside of the tentacles using fabric glue (I already had that on hand).

When I was sure everything was dry, I started attaching the tentacles to the elastic waistband. I folded the end of each sock over the elastic and stitched underneath. I didn't sew them to the elastic, as I wanted to be able to slide them around the waistband to arrange them however I liked while I was wearing the costume.

To clarify, I actually wore two separate "skirt" pieces: my tutu skirt and the tentacle skirt. I'm sure I could have combined them but, hey. I didn't.

I also made Ursula's shell necklace out of Crayola Model Magic Clay. If you go this route, make sure to make this in advance because it took my necklace a good solid week to dry completely. No real tutorial here; we've all done this with Play-Doh in our day, right? Just roll it out into a long, skinny piece and then wrap it around itself to form the shell shape. I then stuck a wooden rod through the top to make holes to thread my necklace cord through, and let it dry with the cord sealed into the clay. Voila!

For the rest of my costume, I wore a black tank top, black leggings and black flats. I had a grey wig from last Halloween lying around, and I wore that but gathered and pinned the long hair up onto the top of my head. And of course, I wore some bright red lipstick. And that was it! 

DIY ADULT PRINCE ERIC COSTUME

Really, I don't have a tutorial or supply list for this one because it didn't require any "making" of things. All you need for a Prince Eric costume is a button-up white shirt (left partially unbuttoned, with the sleeves rolled up), blue pants, a red belt (we used a scarf we already had), and black boots. We considered buying boot tops for Eric, but ultimately decided to just fake the look by tucking the pants into black socks with black dress shoes. And, done!

DIY DOG KING TRITON COSTUME

I have to admit that Achilles' costume was probably my most favorite part of our family ensemble. When we originally had the Little Mermaid idea, I just assumed he'd wear a crab costume he already had and be Sebastian. But then I thought, wait. He also already has a beard. And it was all over from there, because OBVIOUSLY Achilles was born to play King Triton.

Supplies and Cost Breakdown:

• Blue tulle: I used leftover tulle from Ellie's mermaid tutu, so $0
• Blue ribbon: $0.50
• Gold glitter foam visor: about $1 (I believe I bought this at Joann Fabrics, but it may have been Michael's. It looked like these, except in the store I was able to buy one individually.)
• Gold sparkly pipe cleaners: $1.99
• Already owned: fake beard (came with a Santa costume set from Target a few years ago)

TOTAL COST: approximately $3.50

Instructions:

To make the merman tail, I simply took what strips of blue tulle I had leftover from Ellie's mermaid tutu skirt and folded them in half over a piece of blue ribbon (I believe the tulle strips were approximately 31" long, but obviously measurements will vary based on size of dog).

I then tied another piece of blue ribbon around the base to make the "fins."

I then cut that bottom section in half, squirted a little fabric glue on each half and twisted the ends together to make the fins more defined.

To put this on the dog, I just tied the top ribbon around his waist. It worked for a photo, but admittedly, this is not the best plan if you want to take him out and about in his merman tail, because it flops around to the front rather easily. But, we only really wanted the picture, so this was fine for us.

For the crown, I just drew the outline of Triton's crown freehand on the back (non-glittery) side of the gold visor, then cut it out with scissors. The visor already had a little strap attached that made it easy to put it on Achilles. I also fashioned a trident out of pipe cleaners. I originally tried to make arm cuffs out of leftover crown trimmings, but they didn't stay on very well so we scrapped that idea.

This took no time at all and I nearly died laughing when we actually tried it on him.

Surely there is a special place in Doggy Heaven for this poor pooch whenever his time with us is through, don't you think? What a good sport! He made our whole ensemble, I think.

And that's it! That's how we put together our Little Mermaid family costumes!