Deer&Doe’s fall-winter 2020 collection came out a few weeks ago, and as usual I’m showing you what I made for myself from the patterns. To be honest with you, I haven’t yet finished my version of the Acajou pants (I made a ton of muslins but none of them are wearable unfortunately), but on the other hand I have two Neige sweatshirts to present to you today, version A and version B!
My first sweatshirt is made after version A of the pattern, with the regular length and the wide funnel collar. This collar is really my favorite thing about this pattern, even more than the exaggerated sleeves. On the one hand it brings up images of the 60s, with a little retro-futuristic “space age” vibe. On the other hand, the width of the neckline reminds me of a monk’s outfit (especially when worn with these culottes), but, you know, a sexy monk, think Christian Slater in The Name of the Rose, you get the idea. I know, I know, I have a lot of imagination!
We don’t necessarily recommend stripes for this pattern because they can look a bit messy with the sleeve design lines, but I like to break the rules so I used this quilted fabric with breton-style stripes. It’s a shame that it’s already out of stock, because it’s a dream to wear! It’s squishy, and soft, and really perfect for this pattern.
The stripes are not matched at all, not even at the side seams, because I had to Tetris my pattern pieces out of the fabric (more on that later). The slits are also half as deep as they should be on the final pattern but that’s the only difference. Ah, and as usual with tops I cut a size 38 everywhere.
In addition to this striped version, I also sewed a slightly sportier B version, with the cropped length and ribbing at the neckline and sleeves. This version is in a solid color, which allows you to better see the structure and the very particular silhouette of the sleeves:
To keep with the medieval theme, this version makes me feel like I’m wearing armor, what with the gray color and imposing sleeves. Maybe even chainmail with the geometric texture of this quilted fabric!
Turns out, this fabric is the exact same as the one from my version A, but on the reverse side! I had ordered enough to make the striped version but I fell in love with this reversible fabric and therefore wanted to use both sides. I managed to cut everything out of 2 yards which is pretty good for two long sleeve sweatshirts! I just had to cut the bottom of the gray sleeves on the cross-grain (you can see the diamonds are slightly different if you look very closely!) but that’s not a problem in terms of elasticity because the Neige sweatshirt requires a fabric with 0 to 30% stretch, so the sleeve doesn’t actually have to stretch crosswise.
The ribbing I used is super soft, with very fine ribbing, and its gray color completely clashes with the gray of the sweatshirt. It was a final muslin and I didn’t want to purchase anything I didn’t have to so I used what I had in stock, it’s a bit ugly but I don’t care I love it anyway!
Just a quick note about the culottes before wrapping up: as you might have guessed, these are the culottes from the Dressed book, this time sewn in a slightly stretchy corduroy. I lengthened the back darts slightly compared to my previous version, and the stretch fabric makes them extremely comfortable. Pairing them with a Neige sweatshirt creates a silhouette that is completely out of my comfort zone but I don’t know, I felt like experimenting a bit. I also wore these two sweatshirts a lot over my Goji chambray shorts this summer, the proportions work really well. Don’t count on me to take pictures of these outfits right away though, it’s way too cold, that will have to wait until next year! With that I’m going back to my Acajou pants so hopefully I can show them to you soon 🙂
