Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Ottobre v. BWOF

For those of you who don't know about Ottobre, I'll give a little run down on differences between it and BWOF.
  1. Both use pattern sheets you pull out of the center of the magazine. The Ottobre ones are smaller which means there are more things you have to piece together. The jumper I'm working on is a sheath dress. There were two pieces to the front that I had to line up and two for the back. Not really annoying but a little more work. There are two pattern sheets for Ottobre and two for BWOF (although you cut them in half and end up with four). BWOF uses that newsprint material and the Ottobre one is glossy magazine paper. The Ottobre pieces are easier to find because they print the numbers BIG.
  2. There are fewer patterns in Ottobre. The May 2008 issue has 19 styles. BWOF usually has 25-ish in my size range.
  3. There are only two Women's issues a year for Ottobre. They also produce four children's magazines per year. BWOF sends out a monthly magazine.
  4. Ottobre is what I would describe as more "real-life" patterns. They have a lot of casual patterns that you could really live in. It seems like the BWOF patterns are more "dream-land-party" styles. Sometimes when I look at BWOF I see really low necklines and high hemlines. Very cute but sometimes not totally practical for my teacher-mom lifestyle. Don't get me wrong. I heart BWOF but sometimes they are a bit too much for my life. Would I like to have a life like that? Sometimes. Is my life like that? Nope.
  5. The Ottobre magazine uses real women for their models. BWOF uses, well, you know, leggy, tall, thin models.
  6. Working on my first Ottobre I have found what I am sure is a drafting error. I am making the jumer pattern #7 and the two notches on the side don't line up. If you line them up, the bottom of the armhole doesn't line up. And there is no way to get 1.5" of fabric to ease in that amount of space. I also traced off #5 (cargo pants) and the tracing sheets were missing the pocket line and the buttonhole on the tracing sheets was different from the placement on the detailed diagram inside the book. Maybe it's just me and my inattention to detail. Maybe just beginner's un-luck at finding a couple of errors? Or, now that I'm calling attention to this, it will probably be my mistake. I did read through some Ottobre reviews and no one mentions drafting errors. We'll see. My jumper should be ready to try on tomorrow. It's on the duct-tape lady now.
Here's the pattern sheet.