Friday, October 28, 2011

Ahoy ye landlubbers!

 Zoey was NOT happy about having to pose for pictures after school today in her pirate costume.
I just know, in that picture up top, she's picturing me walking the plank. Or worse: swabbing the deck!

Zoey's pirate costume turned out pretty easy. She already had the pants & boots. She DESPERATELY wanted a hook for her hand. So, I searched 4 shops until I landed at Target, where I spent $8 for a package that contained a hook, hat, eye patch, sword & round hoop clip-on earring. 

I had some super thick gold cording that she tied around her waist. It got lost at school today, so for the photos we raided the girls' dress-up bin & I found a sash, adorned with beads.

The only thing I DIDN'T have was the shirt. And I didn't want to spend a lot of money on costumes. So I started googling "How to make a pirate shirt" & I came across THIS ARTICLE which started me in the right direction.

I found a long sleeved {boys} shirt at Goodwill for $2. And then I gathered white thread (to use on the sewing machine & for some hand stitching), lace (mine was 1 3/4" wide, but I would say anything up to 3" wide would work well), & some black hemp cord (you could also use string or ribbon).

First you'll want to gather 18" of lace for the cuff of one sleeves.

Pin the lace onto the outside of the cuff & sew with a sewing machine.
Repeat this for the other sleeve.

Next, take a long piece of lace & form it into a "v" shape on the front of the shirt.
The lace for my cuffs was different than the lace for my shirt. I found a scrap piece in my stash that I really liked for the front of the shirt.
Pin in place & stitch on with a sewing machine.

Now you can thread your hemp cord onto a fat needle.
As you can see, I just did a VERY basic job of stitching some X's.
I decided not to have a "bow" on the front.

The bow is hidden on the inside. But you can adjust yours so the bow is on the outside. The thick needle creates little holes in the shirt, so you can actually pre-poke the holes & then just thread the cord with your fingers, in & out of the holes.

Another option is gluing ribbon/cord/string in a zig-zag pattern, instead of sewing.

And that's it.
 Once all the pieces of the costume are put together, it really looks like a pirate shirt.

Argh!

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