I haven’t used Ottobre patterns, but know you are a fan. I can’t find how to get the information about magazine contents at the Ottobre site, though it’s easy to order from there once you know what you want.

I enjoy looking at the information about individual issues accessible from Dots n Stripes.

Thanks very much for giving all the detail

Sweater knits: Rollneck 5/2011-8 (up to plus sized); Long-sleeved crewneck with “saddle” shoulders (is that what they’re called? can’t remember) 5/2011-4 (up to plus sized); Cardigan – absent but I might shorten 5/2009-8 (up to plus sized), which is tunic length.

Crewneck tees: for sure the series of patterns that includes 2/2006-1 — comes with a range of sleeve and neck variations and a modern fit. Absolutely true to size, and there is a plus sized range with slightly different drafting. Scoop necks and more sleeve variations in the 2/2007 issue, again up to plus.

Shirts: I use 5/2010-5 which has gathers at the yoke as it’s more feminine, but for a classic tailored women’s shirt, 2/2006-5, 5/2007-1 or 5/2007-8 are all suitable. Also 5/2012-7 is a good modern variant (and available in plus sizes).

Slim jeans: 5/2012-9/10, for regular and plus sizes; and for chinos the 2/2012-18 pattern, available in some plus sizes – there’s an elastic waist version in larger plus sizes in the same issue.

You can see/download line drawings for every issue at the Ottobre design website, and all the issues can be backordered singly. Not affiliated, just a happy user.

I don’t read Janice’s blog regularly and I realize it’s because I can drool over all the accessories but the plain clothes make me itch.
I would feel my spirit imprisoned (just to be dramatic) in the clothes pictured above. I literally recoiled when I viewed them through the prism of possible wardrobe choices for me.

I sometimes think of my wardrobe pieces worn near the face as jewelry. I have quite a lot of accessories but I like them to be part of a composition and cause a more blended look. At the same time, I use them to tone down the interest factor even if they themselves, if worn alone against a plain background, might be very interesting. I think of them as creating a pattern along with the rest of my clothes. I often coordinate by motif, picking up, say, an arabesque shape. I’m not a shoe person but I do enjoy certain distinctive shoes and have learned not to acquire them. I don’t want people looking at my feet. Or my handbag. I like shoes, bag, belt or even very small print scarf to be punctuation.

I gave away some goldenrod yellow shoelaces that I had been saving for years and finally put into a pair of lace up brown shoes, similar to many that Steph wears. I wore them that way out of the house just once and kept feeling like my feet were pulsing with interest. I couldn’t take it. I also gave away a pair of high heeled mules a friend passed along to me: extremely comfortable, hand painted! in what looked like a knotty wood motif in that same strong yellow and some warm browns. Kind of a cross between wood grain, leopard and op art. I loved them. I would wear them sometimes in the house until the inevitable trips up and down stairs to do laundry, but I couldn’t wear them out the door. Way too exciting of interest. Though I don’t seem to have any problem wearing a short, saucy zebra print trench with narrow shoulders that create a little puff at the sleeve cap and an oversized collar that’s buttoned down to make it stand up tall. Makes me giddy happy just to put it on.

I keep my individual wardrobe pieces fairly basic and traditional in shape and fit. I think about what the busy man in the street might call my clothing. Want him or her to think in one word descriptions like “jacket,” “pants”. Since I wear both geometrics and florals, I don’t mind if that description is “loud” or “busy”. I guess I want all of Janice’s accessories but I want them to take a back seat. I suppose *that’s* a key to my style.

I’ve been trying to figure out why I think of my look as partly Romantic even though I’m not wearing those full blown romantic style details and I often like my look a little staccato. I never dress immodestly (we won’t talk about my youthful days at the dawn of the miniskirt and the years of fashionable bralessness, both of which read, to me, as “freedom” but it was the zeitgeist) but have often received transmission of commentary that guys I have met briefly at a friend’s house thought I was, say, a “hot mama.” Hunh?
I like to emphasize looking pretty/fetching and I think that doing this communicates that I have a high opinion of my own attractiveness. I think that translates to “hot” for a lot of guys.