Monday 14 December 2015

Art Teacher Dress

When I was doing A level Art I had an art teacher who cultivated the eccentric art teacher image. She wafted around wearing a dark blue loose fitting art overall, strings of beads and a loose wispy bun. I don't remember her ever actually teaching me anything.  Instead I was just left to paint innumerable still lifes.  She would just hand over some money and send me to buy aubergines for my still life, always pronouncing it in a cod french accent.  Once I arrived at art college it became rapidly apparent that I had been taught nothing at A level, except how to stretch out a trip to the greengrocer's shop into an excellent skiving opportunity. 

Any how, this latest make is a dress, called the Art Teacher Dress.  It is from Autumn/Winter Ottobre 2014.  I had completely overlooked this pattern until recently.  A number of little seeds planted in my mind, I have a love of sack dresses and the ease with which they make an everyday outfit.  I recently read this post on anti-fit fashion on http://meandorla.co.uk/  I saw some lovely sack style dresses on the Toast website.   I have been pinning sack dresses.  Then I was in a shop with a friend and saw similar sack dresses. They were selling for over £50 so I had a little think to myself, went home and had a skim through my Ottobre collection to see what I could find.

 The dress is deliberately oversized.  It has bust darts,and small back neck darts and a back zip. It was a very quick and simple make, giving a satisfied glow.  I was able to trace the pattern on a friday night, and cut the fabric. I was finishing the sewing on sunday night. The dress has front in seam pockets which I love.  They are cut as part of the front top and bottom pieces.  I used some dotted denim from ebay to make this dress.  From the way it washes and irons I would say this is denim/ poly mix.

I love the ease of wearing this dress. Just pull it on and go.  No thinking.  I love no thinking,  I know it is shapeless but right now shapeless is how I feel.  I made it quite short to compensate for the shapelessness.
I actually have made another version but will have to share that another day. How do other people feel about sack dresses and shapelessness?