Allow sortable to reorder items when dragged outside of container

I'd like sortables to have the option of being able to reorder items when items are dragged outside the bounds of the their container. The specific reason I would like this is that it is sometimes hard to drag an item to be the first or last item in a list -- it'd be good if I could make my sortable list allow dragging an item completely above the list to place it in the first position, or completely below the list to place it in the last position.

The ability to reorder when the mouse is outside the relevant axis would be good, too. For example if I have a vertical list, then dragging an item to the right y coordinate could reorder it even if the mouse x coordinate isn't over the list.

These options might not make much sense if a list isn't shown as a purely horizontal/vertical list, however.