Ottobre Design: Art Teacher Dress

With four days left of October I am in time to blog a second seasonal make from Ottobre Design's Autumn/Winter 2014 edition. The Art Teacher Dress looked very appealing (and easy) and I had some suitable fabric in my pending box – a floral corduroy bought last winter in the Ditto Fabrics sale. This time my long-neglected tracing wheel sprung into action and wheeling out the pattern pieces onto a piece of tracing paper was a smooth process - there are just four pattern pieces to trace out (and a facing) for this dress.

The Art Teacher is almost identical to the magazine's Miss Sporty dress, but with a much more charming name! It's a boxy straight seamed tunic with three-quarter length wide sleeves and two small kangaroo pouch pockets on the front. 

The pockets remind me of Dress N in Stylish Dress Book Volume 3 (another frock I must get round to making one of these days) and are inserted into a horizontal seam on the front. My material is a stretch corduroy so I cut out the back panel in one piece, dispensing with the need for a zip – the neckline leaves ample room to pull the dress on over the head.

I made two attempts at photographing the dress in my back yard and each time it clouded over enough to alter the stunning colours of this fabric. Only the close up shot of the pocket does the fabric justice, but you can get an idea of fit of the thing anyway! I love the easy shape of it.