Thursday, June 18, 2015

Summer Mermaid Dolly

This summer has already been filled with friends, sun, and waves and I am only looking forward to more of it. I constructed a childhood dream, a swim-able mermaid tail and I'm building my core strength swimming with it. I just modded it to have swim fins so I hope to take it out soon to get good photos, I'll be sure to share with you all. I've wanted to design some sort of mermaid pattern for here on the site for a long time, this week I finally sat down and hooked a lovely little mermaid doll.

 
Finished doll is about 12 inches tall

What you need:
Worsted weight yarn in skin, tail, and hair colors
Scrap yarn for smile
Size H (5mm) hook
Polyester fiber fill
2- 12mm safety eyes
Rosy eye shadow or blush (optional)
Clip to keep place
Yarn needle
Scissors


Body
Work in continuous rounds
(I know she kinds of looks like a colorful Mr Hankey at this point, don't worry, she won't for long)
Stuff throughout project for firm body


  • With hair color chain 2
  • Round 1: Work 6 sc in first chain
  • Round 2: Work 2 sc in each sc around working in blo - 12 st
  • Round 3: *2 sc in next st, sc in next st, rep from * around, blo - 18 st
  • Round 4: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 2 sts, rep from  * around, blo - 24 st
  • Round 5: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 3 sts, rep from *around, blo- 30 st
  • Round 6: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 4 sts, rep from * around, blo - 36 st
  • Round 7: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 5 sts, rep from * around - 42 st
  • Switch to skin color
  • Rounds 8-16: sc in each sc around - 42 st
  • Round 17: *sc2tog, sc in each of next 5 sts, rep from * around - 36 st 
  • Round 18:*sc2tog, sc in each of next 4 sts, rep from * around - 30 st 
  • Set eyes as desired
  • Round 19:*sc2tog, sc in each of next 3 sts, rep from * around - 24 st 
  • Round 20:*sc2tog, sc in each of next 2 sts, rep from * around - 18 st 
  • Round 21:*sc2tog, sc in each of next 1 sts, rep from * around - 12 st 
  • Round 22: sc in each sc around - 12 st
  • Round 23: *2 sc in next st, sc in next st, rep from * around - 18 st
  • Round 24: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 2 sts, rep from * around - 24 st
  • Round 25: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 3 sts, rep from * around - 30 st
  • Switch to tail color
  • Rounds 26-30: sc in each sc around - 30 st
  • Round 31:*sc2tog, sc in each of next 3 sts, rep from * around - 24 st 
  • Round 32:*sc2tog, sc in each of next 2 sts, rep from * around - 18 st 
  • Rounds 33-34: sc in each sc around - 18 st
  • Round 35: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 2 sts, rep from * around - 24 st
  • Round 36: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 3 sts, rep from * around - 30 st
  • Round 37: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 4 sts, rep from * around - 36 st
  • Rounds 38-40: sc in each sc around -36 st
  • Round 41:*sc2tog, sc in each of next 4 sts, rep from * around - 30 st 
  • Rounds 42-44: sc in each sc around - 30 st
  • Round 45:*sc2tog, sc in each of next 3 sts, rep from * around - 24 st 
  • Rounds 46-49: sc in each sc around -24 st
  • Round 50:*sc2tog, sc in each of next 2 sts, rep from * around - 18 st 
  • Rounds 51-52: sc in each sc around
  • Round 53: *sc2tog, sc in each of next 1 sts, rep from * around - 12 st 
  • Rounds 54: sc in each sc around -12 st
  • Round 55: *sc2tog, sc in each of next 1 sts, rep from * around - 9 st 
  • Round 56: *sc2tog, sc in each of next 1 sts, rep from * around - 6 st 
  • Sew up end, finish off and break yarn
Tail fin:
Work in continuous rounds
make 1

  • Chain 2
  • Round 1: Work 6 sc in first chain
  • Round 2: Work 2 sc in each sc around - 12 st
  • Round 3: *2 sc in next st, sc in next st, rep from * around - 18 st
  • Round 4: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 2 sts, rep from * around - 24 st
  • Round 5: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 3 sts, rep from * around - 30 st
  • Round 6: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 4 sts, rep from * around - 36 st
  • Round 7: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 5 sts, rep from * around - 42 st
  • Round 8: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 6 sts, rep from * around - 48 st
  • Round 9: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 7 sts, rep from * around - 54 st
  • Round 10: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 8 sts, rep from * around - 60 st
  • Break yarn leaving long tail for sewing
Fold fin in half
Whip stitch along edge to center, slip around end of tail, sew through tail and down other side of fin
Gather center to form two fins.

Arms
make two

Chain 13, work 4 rows of 12 sc.
Fold in half and sew around all edges. Stitch around end to form hand/wrist.
Position and sew to sides of body at the color change from skin to tail.

Hair
Cut lengths of yarn, the paperback method I used on my pony hat works really well.
Latch look a folded piece of yarn to every blo stitch.
Style hair as desired. I twisted a section of bangs to the side and stitched it into place.

Embroider smile and add a touch of blush to her cheeks.