A Reversible Topper- ( V1465 by Donna Karan, sort of )

I've had a beautiful two sided knit bought on line at Mood.com for about a year now, trying to decide what to make . IMO, a two sided fabric is useless unless you show both sides and that was the dilemma. I have two other pieces of two sided knits on my shelves as well and I'm having the same problem in deciding how to use them.

As soon as I saw this beauty from Vogue's Fall patterns (V1465 ), I knew I would make it my own.

The problem I had was that I thought I should make a reversible garment with my fabric and for me that means as few seams as possible. I had the idea of blending the two front and two back pieces together to make one front piece and one back piece.

I was hesitant because of the princess lines but I overlapped the front pieces and traced , repositioning the side front as needed. When I was finished, I wasn't confident that the new front would hang properly. I remembered this pattern, M 5937, now OOP, that I made up here.

The collar was too extreme but I thought I could compare the front piece with my newly drafted one. Guess what. The two were almost identical except for the collar. The McCall's front piece had a bust dart which I drew onto my draft and all I had to do was add 10" to the length and I was all set. I used the back of the Mc Call's pattern  which had very moderate princess seams and was easy to blend and
I also used the McCall sleeves.

Here is what I came up with .

And on the reverse side

How did I make my topper reversible you ask!

By using flat felled seams and lots and lots of Wonder Tape and when I ran out,  lots of Steam-a-Seam.

Have a look at some of my seams.

Every seam I sewed , including the top stitching on the collar . got a little help with one or the other of the above mentioned products.

I should mention that The Donna Karan pattern had a great way to deal with mitered corners and I even used that technique when I decided to face the hem so the grey side would not have black showing. I do admit that mitering that corner was not necessarily a good thing in retrospect. But the corners were cut like this, you see

and I intend to use this again next time I want mitered corners.

I really am happy with this jacket and I really prefer it open.

and it will be in my closet for many years to come.
However, someone has to stop me from making more black, grey or red clothes ! I seem to be obsessed with those three colours !

This is how I'll wear this piece.

I guess you can tell I prefer the black side!

On to doll clothes making now for my Riley's birthday.

Happy sewing to all.