Black and White Topper Butterick 6466

I wanted to make something to wear over my black and white mini-wardrobe, and had purchased this interesting cotton jacquard when Fabric Mart had it for it's Deal of the Day at $2.99/yd last month.  The photo above is with the Closet Case Ebony t-shirt.  This fabric has an interesting texture in addition to the print. Here's a close-up:

It was BOLD with a capital B, and I wasn't quite how to use it.  My original need was for a jacket, but I thought that with that large of a print, it would be better as something longer, like a dress. So, it was between either a dress or a jacket, and I waffled one way and then the other for about a week, and then it hit me- how about a longer jacket that kind of looks like a dress?

Butterick 6466 seemed like a reasonable place to start!  I combined the views, and used the sleeves on the view with the asymmetrical hemline.   I like Connie Crawford's patterns a lot, and have just about every one of them.

Here it is with the Closet Case Charlie Caftan.  You can see it's just the same length which is perfect.   It was a windy day today, and we couldn't get a good shot of the back on me, so here it is on the dress form.  It's got a center back seam in the skirt, that I should have eliminated- could have easily gone on the fold and not disrupted the print there.

Since my fabric was all cotton, it was not easy to put on and take off.  So, I added a half lining- just the top and the sleeve portions. This made it much, much easier to put on and take off, and wasn't that hard- I just cut another bodice front and back, and cut away the facing piece, minus the seam allowances.

I ended up straightening out the side seams, so that they don't have that little fold near the hips.  This fabric wasn't drapey enough for it to be a good look.  Here you can see the hem dip down and the side seams.

One funny thing that happened, was that in my pre-washing of this piece of fabric, I washed it with another dark garment in cold water.  I had washed the other garment before, so didn't think that there was much chance of it bleeding.  But, when I pulled it out, all of the leaves were grey, not white!  I went to the store and bought Carbona Color Run Remover.

It was amazing! In less than 2 minutes, it took all the grey out, but left the black as black as ever.  I didn't even use 1/3 of the package.   Here is the topper with an all black column.

So, my cost on this topper was $6 for the fabric, $3 for the lining and pattern, and $1 for the Color Run Remover.  $10- not bad!   I like it with just about all of the items from my black and white mini wardrobe, so I should get my money's worth!

Happy Sewing!

Ann