Pearly, Oyster Mermaid Costume

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to make this oyster inspired mermaid costume using mostly reused materials and second-hand pieces. Click on a topic to navigate to that section of the tutorial.

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Topics

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Shell top

Crown

Tail accessories / belt

Makeup

Image courtesy of Jorge and Jordan

One of my college friends suggested getting oysters one weekend and it sounded like a fabulous idea - I’m sure we were all getting the same targeted ads for oysters bars that week- so we went and had an outing. I knew I wanted to make a mermaid costume, so this excursion cemented the idea that I would make an oyster-themed mermaid costume with real, reused oyster shells.

The oyster shells I used in my costume came from the oysters my friends and I ate that weekend. I asked the waiter for a bag, and I hauled the bag of dirty shells home with me to start crafting. I began by hosing off all the shells to remove any food residue. Afterwards, I soaked the shells in a plastic bucket and gave them a bleach bath. Once they had soaked for a few days, I scrubbed them with a bristle brush, rinsed them off, and laid them outside to dry for another few days.

Preparing the Oyster Shells

Materials You'll Need...

Bleach, soft brush, and gloves

Good size bucket and water

Oyster shells (recycle them!)

Drill with a tiny bit for later

Process in pictures...

Cover shells with water

Add bleach to shells

Let soak

Remove remaining particles

Make sure to give your hands a break when scrubbing and later when drilling the oyster shells for the top and headpiece!

End result: cleaned & dried oyster shells

Shell top

Materials

1 bra, corset, or similarly structured garment
oyster shells, prepped*
faux pearl strands (I used 2 different colors and 2 thicknesses, so 3 total options)
needle and thread
faux half-round pearl edging with flat 'wrong side'

When the shells were sanitized and ready to use, I took a drill and started creating tiny holes in each shell with which I would be able to sew them to a garment. To determine where the holes needed to be located, I put on the garment and physically held each shell where I wanted it to stay, watching for the effects of gravity. Oyster shells are bottom-heavy, so I ended up placing the holes towards the thin top so the bottom portion of the shell could hang freely. I drilled 2 holes in each shell to achieve a comfortable amount of security. It was after this that I began to sew the shells and embellishment to the garment.

Though I recommend using a mannequin or dress form, I actually tailored my costume while wearing it. Unsurprisingly, it was tedious. Because I chose to use a body-hugging type of garment lacking the structure of underwire or boning, I believe this method was more effective than if I had tried to match my body shape to a mannequin. That being said, my recommendation to future mermaid crafters is to purchase or reuse a garment with structure (underwire or boning) and place it on a mannequin to do all the alterations and decorating.

I first took the garment, which in my case was a broken nude colored bra, and adjusted the structure to suit my needs. I removed the straps and replaced them with a string to create a halter top, sewing back the back panel to hide the back straps. I then began sewing the oyster shells to the chest portion of the garment, using a simple needle and thread.

After finally sewing an acceptable number of shells to the garment and coming to terms with the resulting weight of the piece, I began draping pearl strands to decide where to sew them. Only the two outermost ends of the strand were sewn to the garment. I did the same with a half round pearl panel around the waistband, but stitched at closer intervals for this portion.

After the shells and faux pearls were attached, I was satisfied with the top portion of my mermaid costume.

'Pearl' strand placement and sewing

Crown

Materials

oyster shells, prepped*
faux pearl strand
miscellaneous small shells
hot glue
1 old headband, stripped to the plastic/base material
pearl wire or alternatively bendable wire

Faux pearl wire

Comfortable, old headband

Cleaned and prepped oyster shells

To create the mermaid headpiece, I took a selection of smaller, smoother oyster shells and laid them out in the placement I wanted to see. I found an old headband that I stripped to its bare plastic to use for the structure, and determined the best way to attach the shells would be with wire and hot glue.

In a similar process to the mermaid top, I drilled a tiny hole in the heavy base of each oyster shell, sitting it upright to ensure gravity would not topple it over. I found large, faux pearl wire decor at a craft store and used them to glamorously attach the oyster shells to the plastic headband. The resulting look was of an oyster opening to display a giant pearl inside.

To do this, I first strung the wire into the drilled hole, with the pearl on the top side and the wire on the bottom side. I then placed the shell, with wire hanging from below, onto the plastic headband like a perched bird with tail dangling. When I was satisfied the shell was flush with the headband and not susceptible to the tipping effects of gravity, I twisted the wire around the headband in an X shape. Lastly, I applied a generous dollop of hot glue around the wire and onto the plastic headband, smoothing out any thicker parts that could poke my head when being worn.

I did this process with each large oyster shell until they were all securely attached. When I tried on the headpiece afterward, I was able to drape more faux pearl strands along the shells to achieve my desired design. I finished off the headpiece by hot gluing smaller shells in empty spaces along the headband.

Headpiece prior to embellishment

Completed headpiece

Tail accessories / belt

Materials & Detailed Steps

1 mermaid tail (fabric or other options are all fine, here are the two I found easily)
Faux pearl strands

Steps:

Put the mermaid tail on and mark the center front and back using a pin or pen. This will allow us to work without wearing the tail.
While the tail is still on you, hold one end of the faux pearl on your front middle marking and drape until the strand reaches the back middle marking. Ensure the pearl strand is the ideal length to drape down past the hip. This also accounts for the lack of stretch in the strands. The strand should only be attached to those two points (front and back center points) and drape in a U shape over your 1 hip. Cut the strand at the length that provides the most flattering drape.
Using the length for 1 hip, cut a matching strand to be used for the other hip.
Remove the tail to begin sewing.
Sew the front end of each of the two strands of faux pearls to the front middle of the tail.
Sew the back end of each of the two strands of faux pearls to the back middle of the tail. The tail should now have pearls on every side of the waist, though only attached in the two locations, front and back.
The following can be sewn directly onto the tail, or made as a belt, which is what I did. Take 1 strand of faux pearls and wrap around your natural waist. Mark the end of the strand and safety pin it to the front of the strand so it stays in place. Take the remaining length of the pearl strand and wrap it through the waist band you created, twisting strands to create more dimension in the belt. After wrapping the strands to a satisfactory degree, place a piece of tape or other marking on the two places on the strand that are connected by the safety pin. You can now remove the safety pin (which should be at the tightest portion of the belt) and step out of the belt. To wear, step back in and reattach using the safety pin or twist method*.

*Twist method: taking two strands of beading and twisting the beads to a point where they interlock and hold together

The bottom portion of my costume was prefabricated. I purchased the pink/blue tail from SheIn and thrifted the green flared pants from Facebook Marketplace. I sewed 2 strands of faux pearls to the tail and created a belt to wear with the pants. The belt accessory was created from 3 types of faux pearls that I tied around my waist, draped, twisted to secure, and safety pinned to itself to secure.

'Pearl' belt draping style

Makeup

As for the makeup, I decided to go for a purple color palette simply due to convenience. My face was contoured roughly with purple eyeshadow and eyes enhanced with liner and false lashes. For embellishment, I glued strands of the half-round faux pearl panel onto my face using eyelash glue to attempt a more geometric arrangement of the pearls in a way that would draw the eye upwards. I focused on the browbone, cupids bow, and chin. Angelina Jolie had a similar, gold 'chin cuff' in 2019. [Author's note: Although this specific pearl arrangement was not intended to reference any particular association, identity, or person, I thought it right while typing this up to remark on the indigenous tribes that tattoo in a similar pattern and have done so for millennium. Check out this Vogue article if you would like to learn more about the aforementioned real-life art/beauty practices around the world.]

That concludes the mermaid costume tutorial! The only additions I had to the costume were a wig I received from a wonderful friend and a bracelet from another friend's local business.

If you are interested in other costume tutorial/DIYs, never fear, for I will be posting more DIYs as I continue to source and craft costumes in the future. I also have a large costume archive of every costume I have worn in the past 10 years that I may do recreations of come Halloween.

For now though, I hope you have a fun time trying out this costume and becoming the mer-person (merson) of your dreams! ;)

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