Pirate Costume

Ahoy, Matey!

What do you do when your grandson has Pirate Day at preschool the very next morning? Well, this is what I do!

I ran to Walmart just to grab up some plain black fabric for a pair of pirate shorts, I had the skeleton fabric left over from several Halloweens ago and I didn't think of the candy stripes until I went shopping. This is my pirate fabric collection now! I picked up the skull and crossbones (with glitter), the candy stripes and the solid black at Walmart.

Walmart isn't my favorite place to buy fabric because the quality is so cheap, but this is for a 3 hour preschool day so I don't need to spend much or drive further for higher quality fabric. Walmart fabric is just fine. As you can see, I scored.  

It didn't take long and I had a pair of shorts done!  I used a pajama pattern to make the shorts; I just adjusted the length and made them pointy. I didn't use a pattern for the hem, winging it worked just fine.  I did a small rolled hem on the bottom instead of leaving it to fray. I didn't know if leaving the bottom unhemmed would cause a problem with unraveling the fabric, so I hemmed it. Hemming a chevron is a bit of a challenge, but it can be done.  The waist is a simple elastic waistband. 

I also cut out a little skull and sewed it to the knee of the shorts to bring it all together. From far away it just looks like  a smudge, but it's pretty cute close up. 

The belt sash was easy. I just guessed on width and length and it came out just fine. I decided to make pointy tips rather than blunt ends.   I'm sure pirates had some of each. The candy stripe sash really added to the fun of the costume! Glad I thought of it.

The vest is the best part of the costume if you ask me.  I used a tank top pattern and just cut the front down the middle instead of cutting it along the fold of the fabric as instructed. I also tapered the neckline straight down to the middle instead of doing a scoop neck. I cut out two, one of the skull fabric and one of solid black so that the vest is lined and has a bit of a heavier vest weight to it instead of a light vest. I didn't think it would hang well if I just  hemmed it up.

I topped it off with a headband made of the skeleton fabric. They're just too cute to leave out of the costume.

As you can see, he is wearing a store-bought Tshirt. I was in a time crunch and we wanted him to be comfortable, so an old Tshirt did the trick to finish off the costume. The color was just right, but white or black or stripes would have been good too. 

Since this is a sewing blog, here is the obligatory back view photo of the costume:  Just as cute as the front!

My grandson wore it all day! He didn't take it off until pajama time and guess what he wanted to wear the next morning?  Yup! You guessed it!  His new Pirate Costume!