A Mac Job

Image: Marcio Madeira for Style.com

Your new Burberry-flavoured Chic Cheat tribute, as promised, in my last entry.  A few words I never thought I’d say, and much as I enjoy taking on styles and labels I wouldn’t normally think to choose (namely which don’t entail roses, snakes, studs, skulls, a black and red colour palette and motorbike imagery) Burberry’s new puff-sleeved coat was something of an awakening for me.   The label’s public image took something of a battering when the chavs adopted their trademark check and emblazoned it across their baseball caps - a look we all have Posh (I don’t think so) Spice to thank for!  Ah, cherished memories indeed, but it would appear that bygone era is well and truly over and the label has emerged victorious with a sumptuous line of puff-sleeved coats and macs - and a key look for this season.

Difficulty

I’d call this one medium, myself.  It’s straightforward and reasonably self-explanatory, but putting the various pieces together on the sleeve can be a little on the fiddly side.

Hours

About 1-2 days.

Total Cost

Mine set me back about £33.  Veering into the territory of pricey by Chic Cheat standards, but not bad for a mac and…

Save It!

…better than forking out £2,395 for the original!  In fact, that’s more than 70 times the price of the Chic Cheat solution, so you’d be saving yourself a respectable £2,362!

You will Need

• A coat or mac in beige, that mysterious (-ly sexy) colour also known as buff - or nude, as it’s described on the Burberry original…so  insert your own gag.  For my Chic cheat equivalent I used New Look’s Belted Roll-Sleeve Mac (product number 1812028) priced £30 … and she’s a belter!


• 1 Metre of matching  beige coated cotton. I was apprehensive about finding this one, but it was Barry’s Fabrics to the rescue (1 Moseley Street, Birmingham, B5 6JX tel: 0121 622 6102)Where I found some for £2.95 per metre.  Good times.


• Matching thread


• Ruler


• Pencil


• Pins


• Sewing machine


• Iron and ironing board

And now, for the ‘Berry thing…

Fold your fabric back and forth on itself, as shown in the diagram, pinning it in place as you go along, until you’ve got a crinkled area 15cm into your fabric.

Cut your crinkled fabric out and repeat this process again.

You should have two areas of crinkled fabric 1m x 15cm.

Tack stitch your crinkles in place several times along your strip of fabric and take the pins out.

Cut along your fabric strips at 33cm intervals, so that you have 6 strips of crinkled fabric, 33cm x 15 cm.

Cut out 6 rectangles of flat fabric, also 33cm by 15cm.

Stitch each of the 6 flat pieces to 6 of the crinkled pieces.  Stitch 1cm from three of the four edges and then trim back the edges.

Press the crinkles in place on your newly sewn rectangular pieces with an iron on maximum heat (unless your fabric is synthetic, in which case you should iron on a much lower heat or with a layer of calico over)

Take your tack stitching out.

Turn your strips inside out so that no raw edges are visible except the unstitched ones.  Don’t worry about these, they will be folded eventually when they are attached to the mac.  Press the edges flat.

Now to attach them to your mac.  I find it helps to put something under the tops of the sleeves, like a hanger, mannequin or a cushion, so that it is easier to construct a three-dimensional shape on top of them.

Look at the following sleeve detail on the original.

Notice the deeply folded strip underneath the two fabric bulges at the back and front. Do this one first.  Place your strip of fabric along the top of the sleeve, as shown in the diagram:

Bend your fabric slightly and pin it about 10cm down the mac sleeve.  Cut away the excess fabric and fold it back on itself at the bottom.  Pin the bottom in place.

Slip-stitch your fabric to the mac along the top and bottom of your strip.

Now for the back piece.  Attach another of your strips of fabric to the top side of your sleeve, again, along the folded edge of your strip of crinkled fabric.

Scrunch the piece of fabric down so that it only comes about 10cm down your sleeve, and bend it around the side of the sleeve as shown in the picture below.  The scrunching should cause it to bulge upwards at the top of the sleeve, too, like it does on the Burberry original.

Finally, the front piece.  Attach another of your strips of fabric to the top side of your sleeve at the front, again, along the folded edge of your strip of crinkled fabric.

Scrunch the piece of fabric down so that it only comes about 10cm down your sleeve, and bend it around the side of the sleeve as before.

Repeat these last three processes on the other side of the garment with the remaining three crinkled strips of fabric.

…And you should be left with something like this:

Who would know you were not stepping out in New Bond Street’s finest?  Only instead, you’ve saved your pennies - now all you need is a rainy day!