Feyre is exactly the oversized sweatshirt and hoodie you need this fall! Available in both youth and adult sizing, Feyre features a perfectly oversized dolman style. Choose between a shawl or a hooded neckline. The banded hood is an oversized cloak-style, with an optional drawstring. The chunky front placket can be left open, or attach a closure of your choice. Feyre includes three hem lines to choose from – short crop, long crop, or tunic length. On the tunic length Feyre, you can also add a kangaroo pocket! My favorite sleeve choice is the lantern sleeve, but you can also choose from short hemmed, short banded, or fitted long.

Elastic Waist Hack

Feyre… Cool, trendy, and comfy. What’s not to love? <3
Plus, the pattern offers enough options to allow us many different looks and styles, and the cherry on top is how easy it is to have some hacking fun with it! 🙂

I’ve made a few hacked versions and they all have one thing in common: Elastic in the waistband.

 

This is a super simple and easy hack that makes a big difference in the final product.

What you’ll need:

• Feyre pattern
• Elastic (measure it around your waist to determine the size)

Yes, that simple! 😉

What to do:

You’ll sew the Feyre as per pattern up to the step where you attach the waistband to the top. Instead of sewing it all the way around, leave a 2-inch open gap to thread your elastic through.

 

Thread your elastic through using your preferred method/tool. I use a bodkin, but a safety pin will do the trick just fine! Pull the elastic all the way around making sure it’s not twisted inside the waistband.
Overlap the ends of the elastic and sew it closed using a zigzag stitch.

Sew the 2-inch gap closed and that’s it, you’re all done!

Now let’s talk elastic sizes.

This will be a matter of personal preference.
You can opt for a thicker elastic and have it match the height of the waistband for a “just right” fit like the green one, or have the elastic be thinner than the waistband for a slouchier look like the coral.

The pattern options I chose for these were:

GREEN: short crop, hood with drawstring, banded short sleeves.
CORAL: short crop, hood with drawstring, lantern sleeves.

An alternative to this hack would be adding a drawstring instead of elastic like I did for this little cardi hack.

How cute is this one? It’s also super simple to make.

How to:

• Cut the front waistband in half and sew the short ends closed.
  Don’t forget to account for seam allowance when cutting. As this was a spur-of-the-moment hack and I’d already cut the pieces I simply used 1/4″ SA for the waistbands.
• Skip Step 8 in the pattern (overlapping the plackets)
• Attach the waistband.

Easy-peasy! 😉
Options for this one were short crop, hood without drawstring, and fitted long sleeve.

You can also combine the elastic waistband with Kelly’s dress hack below for yet another look:

The sky is the limit! <3
Now go have fun with your new Feyre pattern!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

xxx
Livia

Inverted Pleat Lantern Sleeve Hack

Y’all.  Fall is in the air and I am here for it.  Normally, I am a hot weather-summer-sun kinda person, but this year my Pinterest feed says otherwise.  It also says that I need more tattoos, but that is a different topic for a different blog…

Speaking of Pinterest, during one of my endless scrolls, this one sweater kept catching my eye.  A gorgeous gray little thing with inverted pleat sleeves.  If you’re curious what those are, here is the definition straight from Merriam-Webster; an inverted pleat : a pleat formed by bringing two folded edges toward or to a center point on the outside of the material to form a box pleat on the inside.

The second Made for Mermaids had a testing call for the Adult Feyre, I applied.  Obvs with the intention (once past fit tests and finals, of course!) I was going to hack it to the sweater of my Pinterest dreams!  It turned out so perfect that I want to share with you how to do this  yourselves.  It’s easy, I promise.  Some of you will most likely prefer it over gathering!

We are going to start off by making a small modification to the lantern sleeve.  Print and cut out your size.

 

Yes, I use old fabric scissors to cut out my paper patterns, don’t judge me!  They no longer work on fabric.  Oopsie.  Once your pattern is cut out, use your preferred method to mark the mid point of the sleeve and the where the black “gather-to” line is.  I made small triangles on mine.

Next, get a strip of scrap paper.  Enough to go from the top of the sleeve to the bottom.  Trace the right, curved side of the sleeve from the top to the cuff.

 

Keeping the bottom of the sleeve at the original pattern width, pivot the top only, to the left, one inch.  Tape your original pattern down to the scrap paper that now has your new curve with the one extra inch at the top.

 

Cut out the “new” pattern piece.  You can now go ahead and cut out your fabric!  I have cut out two mirrored crop fronts, one crop back, two (modified) lantern sleeves, cuffs (I did slim these so I ended up gathering the cuff to create more of a poof), tall band, and shawl collar.

 

Take one of your lantern sleeves and place right side up.

 

Fold the left side over (right sides together) matching up the “gather-to” marking to the mid point marking.

Keeping those two points together, fold the same piece of fabric back, creating an accordion-like fold.  Pin in place.

 

Do the same to the opposite side.  Baste into place. This will make it 100 times easier when you sew the sleeve onto the bodice.

 

Ta da! The two pleats should meet exactly at the mid point of the sleeve, and you now have an inverted pleat!

That’s it!  Construct the rest of the Feyre top per the tutorial, making sure you match up the shoulder seam with the pleat seam, and you are golden!

That’s it! What a beauty.  Now off to find some grey sweater knit…

 

Have fun and, as always, please reach out with any questions!  You can tag me in the group or message me directly.

Kindly,

Jennifer Anne

Dress Hack

When I saw the line drawing for Feyre, I thought that it could be really cute as a dress, and I was right!   The simplest idea was to lengthen the bodice to turn the Feyre tunic into a dress.

I used a brushed rib sweater knit for this simple hack. The crossover bodice pieces meet the tunic bodice bottom piece at the natural waist, so it was easy to pin the tunic bodice pattern piece onto my shirt to see where it would end.  I then measured down from there to where I wanted my dress to land (above my knees).

Keep in mind whether you will be adding the tunic band or hemming the bottom so you can take the length of the band into consideration as well when you are cutting your tunic bottom piece.  If you’re adding the kangaroo pocket, follow the tutorial for the pocket and then attach at the top of the tunic bodice bottom piece as per the tutorial, then simply turn the bottom of the pocket under 1/2″ and sew it straight to the tunic bodice bottom like you do the sides of the pocket.

This is such a quick and easy hack to an already fabulous pattern to give you even more options.  I can’t wait to create one using a sweater fleece and adding the drawstring to the hood to make a hoodie dress.

–Kelly

 

Hidden Snaps Hack

Hi all, Lizzy here! I love the wide neckline of the Feyre pattern, but like the flexibility of bringing it up a little too. Also, I just really like opportunities to add snaps and little surprise elements. Enter: hidden snaps in the placket!

I decided to put my snaps 5″ up from the bottom of the front placket pieces. You can install yours higher or lower, a little closer to the edge or farther in, or even two rows if that’s what you prefer!

Start by applying a small rectangle of interfacing (mine is about 2″x3″) to the “wrong” side of both plackets in your preferred location. Remember that your snaps will be installed in the middle of the interfacing, so keep that in mind when you measure and iron it on. Make sure the interfacing doesn’t cross the center line, since you’ll be folding your pieces in half eventually. Notice that both plackets here have interfacing on the left. When fully constructed, the right placket piece will be on top.

 

After ironing your interfacing, mark where you want to install the snaps. Mine are 1.25″ and 2.75″ from the edge of the placket piece.

 

Install the snaps so that the connecting ends are both attached to the “right” side of the fabric. I like to put the female connectors on the piece that will be on the bottom but it really doesn’t matter as long as they’re able to snap when your placket pieces are fully constructed! In the picture below, the placket pieces have been attached to the hood band and the snaps on the left are installed to the bottom placket layer.

 

Go ahead and pin or clip your placket and hood band! The “bottom” snaps will be touching the right side of the front bodice piece fabric when clipped, and the “top” snaps will be visible when clipped. When you flip the plackets after sewing the snaps will line up!

 

Leave it open, snap one, or snap both snaps! Enjoy the versatility of your cozy new make!

 

Ears Hack

The wide hood band on the Feyre pattern was just begging for ears! And my niece was just begging her Zizi (that’s me, haha) for clothing inspired by her favorite Blue Heeler family (you know the one). I couldn’t resist surprising her!

For the ears, I decided to use the pointed ears from the P4P Youth Oversized Sweater as a guide. If you have a pattern with similar ears, you can use that, or draw your own! For mid-range youth sizes, fold a sheet of paper in half and mark 4.25″ from the bottom of the paper on the folded edge, and 2.5″ to the right of the fold. Connect the marks with a slightly curved line. Adjust bigger or smaller according to the size you’re making.

To give the ear more dimension, you can add a little dart to the inner ear piece. Mark 0.75″ up and 0.375″ across from the folded corner. Connect the dots. Cut out your ear!

Cut 2 inner ears and 2 outer ears using your pattern piece. If your fabric is lightweight and floppy, add a layer of batting or interfacing to the outer ears for stability. *Remember*- if you added a dart, only cut that out of your inner ear pieces! I chose to add a layer of batting for stability, cut to match the inner ear piece.

 

If adding batting/interfacing, baste or iron to your inner ear piece, then sew the dart using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Clip the inner ear pieces to the outer ear pieces right sides together.

Sew the inner ears to the outer ears right sides together using a 1/2″ seam allowance. Trim the seam allowance to 1/4″ if needed, and clip the corner near the top so it turns out nicely. Turn the ears right side out. If you added the dart, you’ll notice that the outer ear rolls toward the front when you match the bottoms. Optional: Baste the bottoms of the ears closed.

 

Sew the hood pieces together along the curve, then clip or pin the ears to the hood edge, right side of hood to outer ear, 1-2″ from each side of the center seam. You may want to hold the hood up to the recipient to determine the placement. Baste in place and check to make sure you like the placement. If not, detach and adjust. Since mine was a surprise, I tried it on my head. Looking good, haha!

Continue with construction following the tutorial. When you’re ready to attach the hood band, the ears will be sandwiched between the hood and the band.

Finish your Feyre and flip it out! Marvel at your amazing talent!  😍

I think she likes it!

-Lizzy

 

We hope you love the new Feyre patterns just as much as we do! Whether you’re sewing up a lightweight version for the warmer fall nights, or you’re making a wearable blankets for those chilly hay rides, we can’t wait to see what you sew up! Be sure to tag us on Insta, and share over in our Facebook group.