Last weekend, my husband decided to turn his old pair of work jeans into shorts by cutting off the legs. My daughter spotted the cut-offs and decided we could turn these into mermaid tails. Obviously my ‘recycling’ awareness is paying off with her! This turned into a really nice activity that both the children enjoyed doing and as it was a sunny day we had great fun playing mermaids in the garden with them.
We took the cut-offs and attached a fin at the bottom made from a piece of card. I stapled this to the bottom ensuring that all the staples were closed securely to avoid any scrapes.
Secure a fin to the bottom of the jeans with staples.
Decorate your tail with sparkles, glitter and foil – or anything else that takes your fancy! We used PVA glue to attach everything. It worked pretty well but if you wanted it to be more permanent you’d probably want to use some stronger glue. I wanted the children to be able to do the decorating themselves though so PVA was the best option.
It was such a treat being able to put lots of glue on Daddy’s jeans!
Finally, wriggle into your Mermaid’s tail and have all sorts of underwater adventures! Ours turned into a Mermaid obstacle course and then a race to get to the other side of the lagoon before the sea witch squirted you with water!
If you don’t have an old pair of jeans or trousers that you can part with then check out the charity shops for some. Bigger jeans or trousers would work best. My husband is very slim so our tails wouldn’t come up over their bottoms. I think the tails would be even better if they came up to their waist. Don’t staple the tail closed at the bottom otherwise they will only be able to wiggle around on the ground, they won’t be able to stand up.
I hope you will give this a try – do come back and let us know how you got on.
greenmumsblog
nickdixon1
Greenmumsblog 
What a brilliant idea! This is fab, thanks for sharing.