My mom and I had sewn the mermaid tails ourselves. I thought it would be fun for the girls to have mermaid tails to try on at the pool, and it would be cute to have pictures of them in the tail looking like a mermaid. Luckily the fabric store had Halloween-type fabric out, and I found the perfect green, scale, mermaid-looking fabric. I also bought a pink sparkly bathing-suit type material, and we made a total of three tails. Originally I had looked on-line for some sort of costume mermaid tails that could be worn in the water, but only found professional photographer tails for like $250. This material cost me around $15 and made three tails (and were very easy to sew with no pattern, even for a novice like me!).  The kids all got really into the mermaid rescue, and had fun doing the little obstacle course to earn their fairy wings.