Made for Mermaids Avery Hacks

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Have you had a chance to check out the super cute new release from Made for Mermaids yet? The Mama Avery and Avery patterns were so much fun to test. I loved this top and wanted to see if there were ways that I could stretch this pattern for even more fun styles. You know I love getting the most out of my patterns and so today I want to share with you two simple Made for Mermaids Avery Hacks.

Made for Mermaids Avery Top Hacks:

Crop Top Hack-

This first one is so easy, it hardly needs any explaining. I wanted a cropped version of this top to wear with flare leg pants (posted here) and also something that will look great in a workout performance knit for an upgrade to my athletic wear. I also kept in mind that I am no 20 year old anymore and quite frankly, don’t feel like baring my tummy post 4 kiddos much. So, this is on the longer side of a crop top with a slight hi-low hem line. The beauty of this hack is you can make it whatever length you want.

Supplies: Avery Pattern, Straight Ruler, Curved Ruler, Tracing Paper (I use this from Amazon, it’s cheap and lasts a long time). Knit Fabric, my red was found in the Joann remnant bin for around $2.00

Measure from under your arm to where you want your crop top to hit on your waist. I chose about 12 inches and double checked that I liked that by measuring from the neckline down my center front 12 inches. Once I was happy with the length I created the new pattern piece.
Take your pattern and mark 12 inches (or whatever length you choose) down from the under the arm on the side seam and then again from the neckline on the center front. Connect your two lines using a straight edge. Trace your new crop top pattern onto a piece of paper.
Take your back piece and measure 12 inches down on the side seam starting under the arm. Then place a curved ruler and draw in a slight curve from the 12 inch mark to the center back. I drew in a curve that would drop the back of the top down about another inch in the center back. You can play around with this curve to see how dramatic you want the hi-low hem. Trace your new crop top pattern piece onto a piece of paper.
Cut out your crop top and stitch your top according to the pattern directions…that’s it! See- easy as can be.

My second hack involves a little more work on the front end, but we will be leaving all the hems raw so this is a very quick sew once you create the pattern. **A side note, I tried this on a woven and finished all the edges. The result was a way too tight cardi vest. If you would like to try it in a woven make sure to size up and even then…I can’t promise you the results as I only tried it once and chose to stick with knit fabric.**

My second hack is an open front waterfall cardigan vest hack. I was sitting in church a couple Sundays ago and out of nowhere had this image pop into my head. So, if you love it as much as I do…Praise the Lord for giving me this idea. LOL! I love that you can wear it in the summer or style it with a long sleeve top for fall. You get to keep the fun design detail of the twist back while expanding the options of your pattern.

Made for Mermaids Avery Top Hacks:

Waterfall Front Cardigan Vest Hack-

If you are more of a visual learner, the entire tutorial is filmed here:

You will need your Avery Top pattern in the dress length. You will cut your back pieces as is at the dress cut line.
To create the front of the pattern, place your pattern piece onto a piece of Tracing Paper. Tape the paper to the center front fold line. You want your piece of paper to extend at least 13 inches to the left of the center front fold line like the images show.
Take your ruler and measure from the center from fold line 13 inches to the left of the bottom hemline, again at the waist area, and again at the top of the pattern. Draw your new center front line by connecting those marks.
Draw a line straight across from your original pattern out to the 13 inch mark along the bottom edge.
For the new neckline, I slightly widened the area from directly below the shoulder seams to the new center front line mark by using a curved ruler. Cut your new front pieces by cutting two mirror images, do NOT cut the front on the fold as the original pattern states.
To keep things somewhat simple, I laid everything out in front of me on the floor for the next part, pinned it all at once, then took it to my machine to sew. Otherwise it can get really confusing with both the open back and front pieces. Lay your new front pieces on the floor with the right sides facing up. You will need to overlap the center fronts quite a bit to be able to pin the shoulder seams to the back pieces.
Lay your back pieces on top of your front pieces, right sides facing and pin the shoulder and side seams (you will pin these together the same way it states in the pattern.)
Before you go to your machine, pin the center back seam, above and below the twist the same way you do in the pattern. This is just being done prior to adding bands because we are going to leave the edges raw (hooray, you don’t have to sew bands!!)
Sew all your pinned seams and press. Tuck your serger tails or trim your sewing threads from your regular machine, throw it on and call it good! You can certainly hem and finish all the edges if you want, heck, you certainly could add the bands around the armsyce. But, I liked the look of the raw edges and it is way faster to leave this way. Make it your own and have fun!

Paired here with the Bree Cami Pattern. This pink fabric was super cheap $2.00/yard knit from Walmart. While I wouldn’t recommend it for most projects, it was the perfect fit for this hack.

I hope you have gotten some new ideas for ways to make your new Made for Mermaids Avery Top go even further and become a great piece to add to your wardrobe. Until next time, Happy Sewing.

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