Thoughts on "Teacher Style" and a Linden Sweatshirt

Lately there has been a lot of articles that catch my eye with a reference somewhere on 'art teacher chic' (here for example) as if that's a style that all art teachers should wear. Now, those who've been following along here now that I'm also an art teacher. I teach kids age 6 - 12 in both elementary schools and after school programs. I love teaching them and learning from them too. It's a very exciting and interesting job (PS: The sweatshirt I'm wearing is a Linden Sweatshirt and I'll get to it in a minute) Whenever I see pictures or descriptions of this so called "art teacher" style I get utterly confused. What? Should I wear dungarees or huge gowns with a tangled knot and paint everywhere? That's not who I am! Can I only be a proper art teacher if I look like a tangled mess? I feel like there's this huge cliché going on about art teachers and how they behave/how they look. In my book, it doesn't matter how you look as long as you get your students to learn and you don't cry over every splatter of paint or glue that ends up on your outfit. Since I started teaching last year, I noticed a lot of fun remarks on how I look, what I wear and how I behave. Apparently, according to both students and parents I have: pretty hair (uhm yes, it's pink), funky shoes (blue and sparkly, comment made by a dad), cool skirts ("you look like a princess"), beautiful dresses (pleather, sequins, color all over) and really cool sneakers (sneakers pictured above). All of these comments prove that both kids & parents care about how the teacher looks. I haven't had any negative feedback yet but that might have something to do with the fact that we don't do negative comments towards the person they are about in Flanders (it's all in our headssss) I feel like teachers are often pushed into this category of what they should wear, regardless of the subject they are teaching and I simply love wearing what I like. Even if it's a black pleather dress with leopard sneakers and a cropped sweatshirt. So, fellow teachers: what are you wearing and what is your environment saying about it? Did you ever encounter any weird stares from colleagues (also non-teachers, please tell me!) Especially as we are making our own clothes and not always follow trend standards, this is something that causes both raised eyebrowns and admiration. What are your experiences?

Onto the shirt!

Details

• fabric: Pauli, spotted sweatshirt (black&white), leftover from my brother's Christmas present and also shown in this costume)
• pattern: Grainline Studio - Linden
• Size: 8
• variation A

Flat Pattern Adjustments

• shortened the sleeves by 2 cm
• Shortened the bodice by 16 cm since I like my sweaters cropped to pair with high waisted skirst & dresses

Okay, that's plenty of pictures of a fairly simple sew. It took my 1.5 hour, including tracing my size and flat pattern adjustments. I'm only wondering if this shape is a good one for me. I like the way it looks with my pleather dress (perfect, 'cause if a kid grabs your skirt with pain on his or her hands, you can wipe it off, the paint that is ) Also, there are some fit issues around the bust area I need to take a look at, but it's not too bad for a first try. I'm thinking cutting a size 6 with an FBA will make things better. We'll see! Now I'm out, I've got some teaching to do!