This post was originally written for the Cali Fabrics Blog.

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I discovered these adorable “Barnacle Buddies” from Made For Mermaids. It’s a free pattern and with two different versions, a pirate and a mermaid. I think these would make a perfect gift for any child. Just look how cute they are!

The entire time I was sewing these little pirates, my two boys begged to have them. They just couldn’t wait until I was done making them. My kids also kept asking for particular colored things, a red hat, a blue shirt. Since I was sewing the pirates, I was able to give my kids exactly what they wanted. They were beyond thrilled when I actually let them play with pirates!

I couldn’t just stop with my boys though. I had to appease my inner child by making the mermaid version as well! And yes, I made two mermaids.. I couldn’t help myself. Especially with those mesmerizing sequin tails!

(Note: sequins are not required, they were just my choice.)

The doll doesn’t have to be a mermaid

She actually has legs! The mermaid part is something that you can slip on her. If you want her to have a wardrobe, Made For Mermaids has an entire line of doll clothes. How fun is that?! As far as I understand it, all of their doll clothes have a size to fit these “Barnacle Buddies”.

For the pirates shirts, I used the dolly kourtney top. I opted not to do the knot version since that wouldn’t really suit a pirate. I also used the same pattern to make the dress for dolly.

Another perk of making clothes for the dolls is that it takes so little fabric! It’s great for using up those fabric scraps you’ve been saving!

I knew my boys were happy with the pirates, but I was surprised when they asked over and over again to have the mermaids too. I guess the pirates needed mermaid friends to play with!

My boys asked to take the pirates to bed with them that night and I agreed. After I put them to bed, I heard some noises coming from their room. I peeked in on them and they were both playing with the pirates. While I wanted them to sleep, I was also thrilled that they loved their pirates so much!

The Details

The doll “skin” was made using this kona cotton in cream. I think it worked great as a skin tone!

For the Pirate pants/legs, I used this stretch cotton broadcloth in black. 

For the mermaid tails I used this gorgeous sequin fabric and lined it with the cream kona cotton for the middle section. It doesn’t actually call for a lining, but I wanted the extra layer since the sequins are on a mesh backing. For the tops and bottoms of the tails I used jersey knit scraps in this blue and this pink from my last blog post about sewing with jersey knit. The pink worked out perfectly, but the blue was pretty drapey and didn’t have enough structure. To remedy that, I used a fusible interfacing on it and that made it work great!

I also used the same pink for the doll dress as I did for the mermaid tail.

For the pirate shirts, I used a black and off white striped fabric, and this blue fabric. I’m not going to lie, when that striped fabric came in it was so soft. I just wanted to make lounge clothing out of it!

For the hats, hair, and bikini pieces I used felt. One of the mermaids also had a bit of yarn for hair.

I used a black vinyl for the faces and the eye patch. Then I used White vinyl for the skull and bones on the hats. The pattern comes with free cut files for those things. However if you don’t have a cut machine, you can embroider the faces, or potentially cut your own felt faces and adhere them to the doll.

Thank you so much for reading! Good luck and have fun making these dolls!