Pirate Shirt Tutorial Part I: The Body

Sorry for the shabby drawing--I'm a visual learner, so I thought some may appreciate pictures, no matter how sorry looking! :)

This project is better suited for those with some sewing ability. While it isn't what I'd call "hard", I can see where it is not exactly a beginner-level endeavor. But don't lose heart! If you have a knack for sewing, certainly give it a go, if perhaps on a toddler scale. I constantly surprise myself--you probably will, too!
These instructions are for an adult-sized pirate shirt. Scale it down accordingly for children or toddler sizes.

1. Use a button-down shirt that fits your buccaneer as a pattern guide. I'll call this shirt the "guide shirt". The pirate shirt will be pulled on and off over the head, so don't use a tight shirt or a shirt made of stretchy fabric as your guide shirt.

2. Close the shirt front (i.e. button the buttons). Turn the shirt inside out. Tuck in collar and sleeves, and smooth out all the layers of material as flat as possible. Fold it in half at the middle (where the buttons are), so that you're looking at half a shirt body.

3. Get a width of material twice as wide as the full body of your guide shirt. Fold it into 2 layers (one wide of shirt body). Fold in half again (half the width of the shirt body). Lay your folded guide shirt on top of your folded pirate shirt material, lining up the folded (middle) edges. Cut out around the shirt, leaving an inch for seam allowance on the edges. This can be cut down later if it's too big, but you're better safe than sorry by allowing more fabric than you might need.
*You may want to make the shirt longer than your guide shirt, to allow for a belt or sash at the hips. This is especially the case if your pirate will be wearing tight leggings--cover up that booty! Consider this when cutting.

4. Unfold layers. You should have 2 identical pieces that look like the body of a shirt. With right sides together, sew together the shoulder seams and side seams. Be careful not to sew your arm or neck holes closed.
*You may want to leave 4-5 inches open at the bottom of the side seams for ease of movement, if the shirt falls at or below the hips (which it probably should in any case).

5. Designate one side as the front (shouldn't matter which). Trim the front neckline lower than the back by two inches or so. Cut a straight vertical line, about 4-5 inches long, down the chest of the shirt, beginning at the middle of the neckline. This will be the slit that laces up the front.

6. Make sure it fits your pirate, and make any necessary adjustments; take in the side or shoulder seams as needed. Finish the bottom edge.

Now you're ready to go on to the other parts of the shirt!

How to be the Dread Pirate Roberts on a Shoestring Budget: Part I

You may remember the (in my humble opinion!) fantastic costumes Hubby and I donned for our friend's costume party a few weeks ago. (If not, go here.) Since Halloween's fast approaching, I'm going to go over the Dread Pirate Roberts costume and give some insight into just how cheap and easy it was to create. I think you'll be surprised!

The elements of this costume are:
1. Skull cap/head cover
2. Eye mask
3. Shirt and sash
4. Pants/leggings
5. Boots (spats/shoes combo)
6. Gloves
7. Sword

To begin with, some overall things to remember: *All of these elements must be black, and not all blacks are equal. If you've got something old and faded, it might be very obvious next to something new and dark. Pay attn to that, if details are important. *Nick was mistaken once or twice for Zorro, which made me realize that this costume can easily be converted to a Zorro costume, or any masked crusader or pirate you care to match colors or details to!

1. Skull Cap
The skull cap was simply a rectangular piece of stretchy black material. Nothing more. Because it was a kind of jersey, I didn't even finish the edges (jersey doesn't fray). A bandanna would work if you've got a black one around. A good condition t-shirt would be perfect, which you can usually find barely or gently used ones at thrift stores, or discount stores usually have them for cheap.

2. Eye mask
This is one long, thin rectangle with holes cut out for the eyes and a triangle cut out for the nose. Make sure you have enough left over to tie it behind the head. You'll only know where the eye holes and nose triangle should go by tying it on and marking the location of your pirate's eyes. Note: When I say "triangle", I don't mean you should end up with a triangle-shaped hole to stick your nose through. It'll be more like a pointy recession in the edge of the rectangle that goes across the nose, in order to prevent the material from riding up on the nose. Play around with it. You'll figure it out. :)
Perhaps the best thing for your skull cap/eye mask combo would be to find a dark black t shirt and use it for both these pieces. While they're two different pieces, the material should be an exact match in order to avoid a contrast. Your pirate will probably want to take off the eye mask at some point during the evening.

Oh, I almost forgot! DON'T forget the mustache!!!
Nick grew his out for a week or so. It was charming. :)

3. Shirt
This was the most difficult part of the costume. The only reason I was able to make it without buying a pattern is because I have a knack for free-handing. However, even if that's not a skill you have, you should still give some thought to creating it yourself. There are patterns available for this type of shirt, or you can use a shirt that fits your pirate already and go from there. Because it was a little more complicated than cutting and pasting, I'm going to save this part for another tutorial.
If you don't want to try your hand at sewing a pirate shirt, see if you can find a long-sleeved shirt with generous sleeves at a thrift store. You can dye it as needed. Don't rule out the ladies' dept--that's where you're most apt to find this style of shirt. And don't let ruffles on the neck scare you off. You can either leave them (that's an excellent pirate shirt detail in many cases, tho not Pirate Roberts') or just cut them off and replace them with grommets or button holes and add a black draw string. Anyway, more on the shirt later.
The shirt should be a little long, and a sash tied low around the waist or around the hips serves as a sort of belt for the shirt as well as a place to stash the sword. I used the same jersey material as the skull cap and eye mask. It was just a long rectangle.

4. For the pants, I found a pair of leggings on clearance at WalMart for $3. It was just that easy.

5. The boots presented a small challenge, but only for a second. I have no idea where I saw it, but it occurred to me that Nick had black shoes and all we really needed was the tall part of the boot. So I got a pair of black slacks from the Salvation Army, cut the legs off at the thigh, turned them down to resemble tall, slouchy boots, and spray painted them. I'd recommend stitching the top in place (depending on your fabric, you may need to finish the hem to keep it from fraying), and you'll probably have to pin them to the pants to keep them up. I spray painted them because I wanted to give them a rough, stiff, leathery look, and because the inside of the pants didn't exactly match the outside in fabric grain and shade. This step is entirely optional. If you're happy with how your spats look, don't bother painting them.

Wear them over black shoes. As long as they're all black, any shoe should probably work--especially if you're able to cover part of the shoe with the spat (get a slightly flared or boot-cut pant). Nick wore leather shoes.

6. I completely forgot to get gloves for Nick's outfit! Any black leather gloves should do. Roberts' flare out around his wrist and are just a little long. Or, NO gloves will do just fine, too, as it was much later that I realized we'd forgotten them! Clearly not a making-or-breaking part of the costume. :D
7. The final element to this costume is the sword. This and the shirt were the only real challenging parts of this costume. I went to WM and looked for toy swords. Bright orange Nerf wasn't going to "cut it", so to speak. :) So I made one out of dowel rods that I spray painted silver and picture hanging wire. I used an entire dowel rod for the shaft of the sword, and a 7" scrap for the handle. I used hot glue, but it didn't do much for reinforcement. If you think you have glue that would add to the stability, go for it. :) For the handle, I made a cross shape at one end with the scrap and wrapped some of the picture handing wire (any thin silver wire should work) around the two pieces to hold everything in place. Then, by overlapping lengths of wire and lots of wrapping and twisting, I made a sort of decorative handle out of the wire. I don't know that I could describe exactly what I did to make it, but anything you can figure out will work perfectly. You could also use wired ribbon, I think, or wrap some wire with silver ribbon.

And there you have it! Well, minus the shirt tut, which is in the works. Have fun, and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see any pictures of costumes you come up with!

Aaaaas Yoouuuuuu Wiiiiiiish!!!

My good friend decided to have a themed birthday party for her big three-Oh. The theme? Movie characters from the 1980s. Even tho the party had been planned for months, I only decided who Hubby and I would be about 2 weeks before the big event: Princess Buttercup and the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride.

The back story:
My 6 month preggo belly looks more like 8 or 9, so I needed something that would either hide or incorporate my planet. I thought that Princess Buttercup's empire-waisted dress would hide it, but after looking at the pictures from the party, I was clearly WRONG!! I just look like a pregnant princess, huh? :D The good news: 1- it's a beautiful costume that you can wear even if you are obviously up the duff; 2-it was incredibly easy and CHEAP to make; and 3- Nick and I both won best costumed characters at the party, so I wasn't totally wrong when I thought they were great costumes. :)

Let me just say, I am WAY more impressed with the Dread Pirate Roberts' costume than I was with mine. First, the shirt: I had never made a proper shirt collar, cuffs, lined neck opening, or poofy sleeves. In fact, I don't think I've even seen pattern pieces for these things, to know what shape they should be. Using only a button-down shirt that fits him as a size guideline, I was able to freehand the entire piece, and it fits him PERFECTLY! I am officially impressed with myself. lol He wore black leggings (the shirt is a little long, so his tush wasn't hanging out too badly), and for the tall pirate boots, I cut the legs off of a pair of black pants, finished the edges, and folded the tops over to make tall spats, which he wore over black shoes. The skulk cap, eye mask, and the sash he wore around his hips to keep his sword in were all varying rectangular dimensions of stretchy black fabric. And that's all! The only "difficult" part of the whole outfit was his shirt, which wasn't too bad itself because I looked up a good tutorial as a guide. Oh, and the sword! Dowel rods that I spray-painted silver and wrapped picture-hanging wire around. And he looked FABULOUS!!

My costume was incredibly easy. Here's the dress it's modeled off of:

And here's what I did:
A peasant-style dress cut floor-length, a length of fabric for the cape, a bodice made from a dress pattern that I already had, arm bands, and $2 Salvation Army gold ballet flats. Oh yes, can't forget the spray-painted BK crown with hot-glued trim. Lovely!

I wanted to make this post in case I'm not able to talk more about costuming before Halloween. I LOVE making costumes, and perhaps this will give you some ideas for the upcoming season. And, if you're sporting a baby belly, some hope that there are, indeed, costumes you can rock out in, comfortably and stylishly!

*IF* anyone wants a few quick tutorials for these costumes, please let me know (like... leave a comment!). I'm playing with the idea of how-tos for them. Anybody interested?

Tidbits for Little Miss and her Friends

WOW, it's good to be back! This is the first weekend in over a month that we've spent at home, and how nice it is to wake up in our own bed, go to our own church, put the kids down for naps in their own rooms, and hang out at our house on a Sunday afternoon!

My hot glue gun and I were on FIRE this afternoon (don't worry--only figuratively). I did some repairs, and then set to work on a small project for Little Miss. A few weeks ago (the last time I saw my craft room!), she brought me some scraps of Russian tulle that I had used for the bridal veil I recently made. Of course, I immediately put on my to-do list to make a pint-sized veil for her. I still had the practice flower piece from the real veil, so I glued some pearl beads to the center of the flowers (where the crystals had been on the real one), bunched up some extra tulle scraps behind it for added charm, and mounted a piece of tulle on the front for a blusher. A small hair clip glued to the back, and voila!

She's been strutting around in nothing but the veil and an old kids' square dancing petticoat pretending to be a bride since she woke up from her nap. It's pretty cute.

And because I've been privy to more than one sharing predicament during play dates, I made an extra one for her to share when a friend is over. I took a few pics along the way because, I mean, why wouldn't I?
I totally owe you a tut after my prolonged absence, and I've just been itching to do one lately, anyhow. :)

You need next to nothing for this project: some fake flowers, yoyos, ribbons, buttons, feathers, or any flair you want to use for the clip; a length of ribbon, popsickle stick, nail file, fabric scrap, or anything a couple of inches long to glue your stuff to; as much tulle as you need to cover the desired area of the face (or back of the head if you turn it around); a hot glue gun; and a hair clip (tip: the bigger the better, as long as it's all covered). After it was all done, I could have done lots of fancier things with it, but I was sticking with what I had on hand.

1. Glue all your flair to the ribbon (my "ribbon" was some left-over homemade bias tape). Make sure to cover the whole thing. Layer your flair for dimension.

This is the front of the piece, all layered up and covering the entire ribbon.

Optional: I glued a piece of tulle behind it, for added affect. Make it as big and loud as you wish!

2. By folding the top edge of the blusher tulle over a couple of times, you can gather it up so that it curves around the face instead of sticking straight out. This will help make it look better. Glue it to the back of the ribbon.
3. Glue on your hair clip. I found a little too late that small clips don't work as well (this was a no-cost project, I just used what I had on hand), so I'd recommend using something bigger or a big bobby pin. And... YOU'RE DONE!

These are the two I made. Little Miss is in love!

Clip it in over the forehead. It seems to work best to pull the hair back. Play around with it. You might find a completely different way to wear it. Any way you do, this is incredibly fast, easy, cheap (or free!), and such a great addition to any costume stash!

PS-- Pics are due any time from our stunning veiled bride, and I'll certainly put them up when they arrive in my inbox!

This Week I Worked Some Small Magic...

Seriously. My deadlines have been mobile lately, and I've been terribly busy. Last week's wedding veil was needed 2 days earlier than anticipated (which doesn't sound like much but it REALLY put a wrench in my week), and this week's project ended up needing to be done Monday instead of Thursday, a huge deal since I was unable to even start until Monday!! So here's what happened:

I volunteered to sew costumes for our local community theatre troupe, specifically the children's production of Alice in Wonderland. I was asked to make the 3 Alice dresses--just the blue part, not the apron, thank God!--and was given some material. With nothing more than the girls' dress sizes (I didn't actually see these little people until I did the final fitting!), t-shirts that I purchased from the Salvation Army to get an idea of their body sizes, and pieces from patterns that resembled the dresses I planned to make, I turned 8 1/2 yards of material into 3 peasant-style dresses for 3 very different sized girls in 2 afternoons (and one evening, with the final fitting and hemming). In technical terms, I believe that qualifies as a small miracle. If you sew and you have 2 (and on the second afternoon 4) very small children, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Or, if you have any idea of the kind of work that goes into free-handing a dress for someone you've never seen without a pattern or measurements 3 TIMES... well, you get it. It's times like this when I feel like I could move the moon if I tried! :)
All in all, I think the 3 Alices look great! And I'm sure their show is going to be awesome! We won't be around for it, tho, as we're leaving today for a visit to my parents' house for the next week. So, have a great week everyone, and good luck little thespians!

A Few Pioneer Pieces

After much research into pioneer-esque outfits that can be made easily and quickly, I have come up with a few more pieces for my booth in August at the Threshers Bee in Hamilton, IL.

What we have here:

A peasant-style top and petticoat.

This petticoat was practice. The bottom tier will be much fuller.

A skirt. This is how the skirts will be; lots of fabric, drawstring waist (in order to be one size fits all), very full.

A simple apron. These will go better with the dresses that I plan to make. A simple, peasant-style dress without much form, that you wear an apron over at the waist to give it shape.

More pieces to come! The good thing about these costumes is that they come together VERY quickly. The bad news is that, no matter what I'm making, they all require LOTS of fabric.

Today, It Finally Hit Me

March is half over!

Naturally, whenever I realize I'm wasting time and burning precious moments, I have a small internal freak-out. This morning I realized that I am very quickly running out of time to reach my big goal--that is, my smaller large goal that is a stepping stone to the "BIG" one. So I called about it.

And, I don't want to make any formal announcement or anything, but I found out that it should be well within my abilities to have a costume booth at the Western Illinois Threshers Reunion this August!!

There are still a lot of unknowns, but I'm going for it! I just need a good stock of merchandise before August. This SHOULD be attainable. Especially if I continue to have mornings like this one!

This morning I cranked out a 2T-4T prairie girl outfit, including dress, apron, and mob cap. Is it historically accurate? No. Period perfect? Not at all. But is it adorable, under $50, comfortable, and something that someone will see and love? Well, that was the plan, anyway. :)

My model was napping, but I assure you, this is adorable on an actual toddler!

Maddy the Pioneer Girl

Who would have thought there would be such a need for pioneer/settler outfits??

The most recent was for my cousin Maddy's school program.

She was Sybil Ludington, a sort of female Paul Revere.

Here she is! How pretty!

Maddy would have made an adorable pioneer. I mean, 300 years ago.

Obviously, she makes an adorable pioneer now, as well. Thanks, Maddy!

Cowgirls Don't Cry: Simplicity 3680

I could NOT be happier with my most recent pattern project! A MOPS friend asked me to make a cowgirl outfit for her niece's Christmas present, and when I got to looking thru patterns for ideas I came across the most adorable, practical pattern I could ever have imagined for little girls!

Their examples are a witch, a disco girl, a pirate, a cowgirl, and a fairy, but I think you could make this pattern into anything just by changing the motif of the fabric. I love it! And it's SO easy! This just might be the quickest, easiest pattern I've ever used.

The belt is not attached to the dress. The brown skirt is. I left the fringe off because I pride myself on turning out a quality product for LESS than an arm and leg, and fringe is expensive!! So I cut some into the faux suede upper skirt with pinking shears.

I'm not even going to wait for the compliments! Cute, Cute, Cute! Rhyl has asked for the Tinkerbell version. Not sure when, but she will have it!

Cop Costume

Finally got a picture! Silly me, forgot to take one after I made it. :P

My friend Nicole's husband is a police officer with our esteemed county Sheriff's Dept, and their 3 year old wanted to be a cop for Halloween. I cut a full-sized adult uniform (shirt and trousers)down to a 3T. At the time, I had never made a shirt with a proper collar OR pants of any kind. This project convinced me that I can conquer the world with just a needle and a thread, because it turned out pretty well!

I free-handed the pants, but for the shirt I bought a button-down collared shirt from the Salvation Army for $1 and cut it at the seams to make a pattern. I removed the badges and pockets, cut the seams on the big shirt, cut the pieces out of it, and sewed it all together. Voila!

Rhyl as Tinkerbell, Halloween 2009

There was no getting around it. Rhyl had to be Tinkerbell. So, after much brainstorming, research, sketching, and one fairly unsuccessful dry run with a yard of satin, I made her a costume. Head to toe, it all cost under $3. I used about half of the $3 green fleece throw that I bought from Hy-Vee, some random jingle bells (on the shoe covers, for the pixie sound), and some leftover white fleece scraps and notions from my stash. Here's what she wore:

*Headband with a couple of white flowers, to keep her ears warm

*Dress: fitted bodice, gathered skirt with leaf bottom, and ruffle sleeves

*Wings: white fleece with pipe cleaners sandwiched between them for structure; green and white fleece pompom in the middle, just for fun; pin backs to attach it to her dress/shirt/jacket

*Shoe covers: because she didn't have any green flats to attach a white pompom to, I made green fleece covers with green and white pompoms and little jingle bells. A drawstring around the bottom of the cover kept it over the shoe. She wore them over her red Mary Janes.

*Long sleeved shirt and tights and such, to keep warm.

My favorite thing about this outfit was working with the fleece--it doesn't unravel! I used my pinking shears for a zig-zag edge and didn't have to worry about finishing any edges. Made it that much more fun! The biggest challenge was making wings that Rhyl was okay with. Judging from the last pair I made, they would have to be something that attached to the outfit that she could forget that she was wearing. Mission accomplished. Cost: about 2 hrs, a portion of a $3 fleece blanket, and some leftover notions.

Some Things for Little Miss

I made a felt crown for Rhyl, because her primary reason for stringing my plastics out is for use as a crown. She puts them on her head and proclaims her rights over her kingdom. Cute, until I have nothing to store my leftovers in.

She was crazy about the crown, but not enough to forget about Tinkerbell. Waving the crown in her face, I asked her if she wanted a queen's dress or a Tinkerbell dress for Halloween. It just couldn't be as easy as making a princess gown, which I'd already have the crown for. No! She wants to be Tinkerbell. (Yeah, yeah, I know--I could just make her a queen dress and she'd love it. But I know she'll love the Tinkerbell dress more, so I'll let the 2 year old win this time.) So I made a rough draft of wings, because I wanted to see if I could even put them together before it was too late to go searching Etsy.com. And wouldn't you know? She hates them! Wore them for 3 minutes, then wanted them OFF! Perhaps we'll have to make her a queen after all.

My Big Fun Weekend Success Story!

As promised, my commissioned prairie girl outfit! Well, S's outfit, now. I made this whole thing--bonnet, dress, petticoat, and apron--in about 5 or 6 hours. Not straight, of course, as the husband and children do not allow such a thing. It's very similar to the Thresher's outfit that I made for Rhyl, but this bonnet is more authentic. All in all, I'm very happy with how a couple hours' impromptu work turned out! And I was SO happy to have a custom order!! If I could sew for a living, I would in a heartbeat. This project brought the reality of being paid to sew just a little bit closer. This, paired with more interest in my etsy site, have been SO exciting and inspiring to me. Thank you to everybody who's helping me to follow a small dream and bring home a small slab of bacon every now and then!






BTW, as always, if you like this and want one for yourself, or something like it (or anything at all!!) I'm happy to accommodate. Making this little outfit was SO much FUN!

Rhyl the Settler!

I LOVE Renaissaince Faires, but I haven't found any close enough to get involved with. The next best thing is the Thresher's Reunions that abound in our little corner of Iowa! (That would be the southeast corner, fyi!) Or perhaps I just like dressing up. That may be it... Anyhow, I am one sunbonnet away from being done with my toddler's pioneer girl outfit that she will wear to the Threshers fairs, where revellers celebrate life in the midwest before the Industrial Revolution. To see more, you can go to http://www.oldthreshers.org/. It's fantastic!

No smiling or looking at the camera for this girl today; Sesame Street was on. And she wouldn't put down whatever movie it was that I bribed her with to try on her dress. It's been tough going, getting her to try it on. She'll have to learn to love it, I suppose!

Oh, BTW--the dress is a pillowcase! Cut off the top few inches at the folded end, cut out arm holes, make elastic casings for the collar, use the piece you've cut off for sleeves (tubes that are gathered at the end w/elastic), sew it all together, add some lace, and voila! A dress. Also, there's a simple petticoat underneath it all. VERY easy! I put the whole things together in a few hours last night and this morning.

Essentially, this outfit cost me less than $1 in material, because the pillowcase was a Salvation Army find and the rest of the material is recycled or gifted.