Can anyone help me suss out this really simple sewing conundrum?

[MamehaSan]

It should be so easy, but I've been wracking my brains for ages on it

I'm trying to make a stuffed rocket, with three separate pieces: 1x body and 2x fins (if my pic has upoaded you should be able to see my patterns for the body and a fin). I'm making each piece out of two bits of material in the usual way: sewing them together right-sides-facing, turning, stuffing and sewing up the hole.

My issue is how I join the fins to the body. In my head, I can see the fins sewn into the seam of the body... but I can't for the life of me work out how I do it! I've tried all sorts of different ways with a bit of sample material but I just can't get it to work. I don't want to make the fins separately and attach them afterwards, it's the sewing into the seam bit that's defeated me.

Any ideas?

Sew the fins to the body on single layers then sew around the body and the fins. I think.

I would sew the fins on the wrong side, but only sew up the two long edges not the short edges (use back stitching at ends) and turn right way around and stuff (leaving a proper fin but with a long unsewn short edge).
Then place and pin these on the inside (ie right facing print) of the rocket. Machine sew around them all apart from a slightly larger gap. This should sew the fins to the rocket.
Turn right side around, squishing the fins through the small unsewn bit. Stuff, then hand sew the gap.

I think...

But my version there would be a groove from fins to the rocket. Is that what you want?

Poor diagram but I think it might explain it.

gybegirl Yes, I want a sewn "groove" separating the fins and the rocket. Thanks for the two suggestions, I'm pondering them both... I'm normally pretty good at working these sort of things out but for some reason this one's got me!

Ok, so thinking a bit more...

I'd wondered about doing it the way elephant suggested and then doing a final stage of top stiching to create the definition between the fins and the body. However, one of the problems I came against when I was doing my trial was the curvature of the two edges.

If I lay the pieces out like in the first step of elephant's diagram, the two bits don't line up, as one has a concave curve and the other a convex curve (see my original pic to see what I mean - if you flip over the fin so that it lays on top of the rocket, as you would if you were following elephant's method, the body and the edge of the fin make a sort of () shape, iykwim).

Can you not just add a bit onto the fin for the pattern so that it fits?

Could you see the sew the fins to the rocket with rights sides together leaving a small gap in the fins don't
Then turn fins right side out stuff and sew up then sew up the rest of the rocket

I did a toy pattern which had a different way of adding a tail.
Cut a slit in the middle of the body, insert the fin and stitch the two sides of the slit and the fin in one seam.
Did that make sense? I'll try and find the pattern.

Here.

I would so the fins and stuff them. I would pin the rocket pieces right sides together with the fins inbetween the pieces on the inside. I would sew around the outside edge (but not the bottom edge) stitching the fins in place. turn the right way around stuff and hand sew across the bottom.

sew

Ah that was a surprise, seeing my thread pop up in active! Thanks for everyone's further suggestions. I have been a bit distracted with the DCs this week so am just getting round to the construction stage - maybe tomorrow! I'll come back and post the outcome assuming I can work it out and don't throw the bloody rocket in the bin in frustration