[Skip to finished costume.]

The pirate-y shirt is made from plain muslin. The neckline is left open but is faced to finish the opening nicely. There are single 'drawstrings' on either side of the collar (these are false). The sleeves are long and billowy with a ruffled cuff. The cuff closes with a single button. For some reason, the shirt came out HUGE - I ended up taking three half-inch tucks on each shoulder in order to control some of the fullness, but these are hidden under the vest anyway.

               

Left to Right: front, back, 'drawstring', cuff, on me
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I made the vest using the Simplicity knockoff pattern. The vest extends to mid-thigh and 'closes' with 15 silver buttons. I found a dark gray heavy weight cotton in the home decor section of Joanns for fabric. The lining I already had in my stash. Much like the pirate shirt, I knew the vest would be huge, so I made a quick muslin before cutting out my good fabric. I took approximately four inches off of the front and back, and maybe two inches in length. I ran out of time to do buttonholes, but the vest isn't worn closed anyway, so it works for now until I have time to upgrade it. ;)

               

Left to Right: muslin front, muslin back; finished vest front, side, back
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The plain pants are made from a dark brown cotton blend. Deviating from the pattern, the pants close with a drawstring and were made a little longer so they might possibly last for more than one Halloween. :) I had to modify the pattern a little - again it was too big, and also the crotch was extremely baggy. I know guys need more room in front to fit things but this was ridiculous. I redrew the front and back crotch, but kept the extra fullness in the back, which creates the baggy-butt look (I thought it was cute, lol). I used cream ribbon from my stash as the drawstring. The sash is a simple rectangle of crinkled cotton pieced together for length. I also used leftover red cotton from the headscarf as an additional sash to add a little color (shown in final costume pictures below).

   

Left to Right: pant front; sash with belt and compass
[up]   [finished costume]

The headscarf was first going to just be the kiddie replica from Master Replicas (complete with dreds!), but it was constructed weird and was way too small. So, I cut the crappy dreds off and the velcro closure so I just had a square of printed cotton. Then, I added extensions of solid red cotton on either side so that the headscarf could fit around an adult sized head. For the wig, I used a baseball cap as a base after cutting off the brim. The wig is a "pirate" wig from Walmart. I cannabalized the dreds from from another cheap wig. I chopped off the choicest ones, taping them first before cutting to prevent unraveling. I attached these to scraps of bias tape before hand sewing them to the baseball cap base underneath the base wig. I strung a selection of beads from heavy thread, using my earring as one of the dangling bits. Then, I attached the scarf on top of the wig and dreds, sewing everything to the cap for stability. The bead strings were also attached by hand. I ran out of time to make the bone-thingy from sculpty as I planned, but will probably do this later as an upgrade. It would have been hidden by the tribal headdress anyway. :)

       

Left to Right: strung beads, the finished wig, on me
[up]   [finished costume]

I didn't want to make a pirate coat or mess with Jack's hat, so we decided to do "tribal" Jack from POTC2. We couldn't resist the toe necklace! For the necklace, I hunted forever for fake feet, but couldn't find anything suitable. However, in the Halloween section of Walmart, I found a mask and hand set with fake fingers that would work as big toes. I cut off the 'toes' and stuffed them with batting. Then, I sewed the toes shut with heavy duty black thread, so it looked like they'd been crudely amputated. I snipped small holes on either side of the toes and then strung them onto black suede cording from my stash, using 'tribal beads' I found at Walmart as spacers between them. The necklace ties in back with a simple knot.

           

Left to Right: before cutting off the 'toes', a finished toe; the finished necklace, closeup
[up]   [finished costume]

For the headdress, I created a frame from 1" strips of funfoam stapled together. I then covered this with netting to give the turban some body, then covered the netting with tribal-ish fabric. The fabric and netting were stapled to the crown of the frame. Since the fabric wanted to poof out, I made a few tacking stitches with thread by hand so that the fabric would gather and fall correctly. I added a strip of red cotton leftover from the headscarf for some contrast and interest. Then, I accessorized with four fake snakes hot glued to the bottom, a fake skull, three colors of raffia tied together and hot glued into place, and various dried leaves and floral decorations found in the crafting section of Walmart. Essentially, this entire headdress is held together with staples and hot glue with a little of thread thrown in for good measure. :D The headdress fits snugly over the wig and scarf, but was made detachable. It is also surprisingly lightweight.

               

   

Left to Right: the supplies, fun foam frame, with netting, with tribal fabric, with red cotton detail; finished headdress, on me
[up]   [finished costume]

As I mentioned before, I bought the Captain Jack pirate kit from Master Replicas, which came with the scarf and dreds, rings, tatoo, eye stickers, compass, belt, and sword. The belt was too small (like the scarf and 'dreds'), but I found cheap belts at Walmart and NY&Co. that would be appropriate. The compass attaches to the waist belt with a biner that I found in the sporting goods section of Walmart. This hooks onto the loop already at the top of the compass and then hooks through the open weave of the belt to hang from the waist. For the sword holder, I made a quick approximation out of scraps of brown vinyl stapled together. The base is cone shaped, just large enough to fit the width of the sword blade, while the top is a simple loop of vinyl that threads onto the belt. For the hand guard, I used the same brown vinyl from the sword holder. I cut it so that it folds over my hand between my thumb and pointer finger. The ends were whipstitched to a strip of leftover brown fabric from my brother's Jedi Padawan robe. This then wraps around the wrist a few times before being tied in a knot. I lucked out and found boot covers at Walmart for under $10. I cut off the funny black mesh that was attached to them, but otherwise they work perfectly and fit nicely over my little brother's tennis shoes.

           

       

Left to Right: the holder, with the sword, on me; the hand guard muslin, interiour of guard, finished guard front and back
[up]   [finished costume]

Little C didn't want to do the facepaint when I fit the costume on him and took these pictures, but if he does end up doing it for Halloween night, I'll be sure to post pictures! For more detailed pictures of the finished costume, click [here].

   

Left to Right: front, back
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To see the reference images used to make this costume,
check out my Captain Jack Costume Research.