The Anatomy of a Pirate Costume

You are staging Peter Pan or some other show featuring pirates. Captain Hook is a pirate, and everyone knows what he looks like.  But what about Smee, or other pirates with less name recognition? How does the audience know for sure that they are pirates, too? The obvious answer is that they look like pirates.  Here are some hints on how to make that happen, even if you are on a tight budget.

Most pirates- and their costumes- are a form of historical fiction. While there is some truth in this image, there is more that is the product of the imagination. If you do it well, your show should carry its audience off into the world you have created. Bad costumes are a distraction and an impediment to this.  Since most Americans think “Disney Captain Hook” or “Johnny Depp” when you say the word pirate, sticking to this sort of imagery works well.   Without buying cheaply made and expensively priced commercial costumes, how do you accomplish this?

Start by looking at pictures of pirates and visually dissect what they are wearing.  Some of the things I noted were blousy shirts, open at the throat, knee breeches or pants tucked into boots, heavy belts, sashes, vests, long coats, things that lace up, ragged edges, stripes, eye patches, bandanas, earrings, and hats.  I also used billowy skirts and corset style belts for some of the lady pirates.

Go thrift store shopping and start looking for these elements. Almost all of the guys wore something from the ladies rack, because in our culture, women generally wear more varied and interesting clothing than men do.  One day I went looking just for pants. I found stretch leggings with pleather on the front of the thighs, loose fitting heavy knit pants with faux diamond trim down the sides, and flared capris with eyelets and lacing on the outside of the leg. The leggings and blingy pants were worn with high boots or boot tops, and the pirate wearing the leggings also wore a coat that covered his thighs.  

The next time I hit pay dirt on belts- most of them heavy leather, studded with metal brads. Another day I went looking for vests.  I was amazed at what I found when I walked through the store thinking “pirate vest.”

 Bandanas can be cut, raw edged, out of suitable fabric.  I made a lot of hats (that is a blog entry unto itself) but I was also able to turn dollar store straw hats and a couple thrift store wool felt hats into pirate hats with minimal work. 

 Once you set your mind on the pirate channel you begin to see pirate in clothing items you might not have considered before.

Mad Hats

I love hats. One benefit of working as a costumer is that I get many opportunities to exercise my inner mad hatter. The hats for Seussical, my current show, are an eclectic bunch. The hat for the Mayor of Whoville needed to make a bold statement, and contain all the colors of Whoville. This gave me an opportunity to play with structure and design. I started with a standard top hat pattern, which I redrafted and tweaked into a top heavy oval with crown and brim pointing in opposite directions. 

The Cat in the Hat wears the traditional red and white stovepipe, while Horton's cap sports oversized ears made of Pellon Peltex and felt. The Sour Kangaroo doesn't really wear a hat- just curlers.  Don't her ears look like weapons aimed at Horton? 

Mayzie wears a Steampunk Fascinator. 

Since the Musical Director will be working in costume, she needs a hat, too. She often wears a beret, so I chose a similar style. I got this nifty vintage hat pattern from Etsy seller kalliedesigns a while back. It is easy to make out of ordinary felt and interfacing. I Seussed it up with checkered piping and multi colored musical embroidery from annthegran.com. 

We also have wigs and do rags and ears and antlers and antennae, far too many for this blog post. And last but not least, we have Costume 1 and Costume 2- because we need to have a little fun, too.  :)

The Steampunk Fascinator- Finished!

Place your pattern pieces on the Peltex, weight them down, and trace around them. Sandwich the Peltex between the two fabrics, and press to activate the adhesive. Then you can trim the fabric to shape, leaving it @ ½” bigger than the Peltex.

To assemble the crown, simply butt the edges of the Peltex together. Cut one fabric edge flush, overlap the other one, and glue in place with Fabritac. Repeat on the inside. Cut the fabric on the teardrop (top) flush with the Peltex, and insert it into the top of the crown, using the excess fabric as a base for the glue. Cut a hole the size of the crown in the center of the brim. Push the excess fabric on the bottom of the crown through the hole, clip, and glue to the underside of the brim. Bind the edges of the brim and crown with a thin strip of knit and Fabritac. Add ribbon and your choice of embellishments. 

On the underside, glue a circle of felt over the hole. Once that is dry, glue an alligator clip to the underside of the hat brim. Hold it in place with clothespins while the glue dries. 

That’s all there is to it!

Making a Steampunk Fascinator

A lot of what I make ends up on the stage. This means that sometimes I can cheat a little bit, and complete an otherwise time consuming job in a couple of hours. Such is the case with this fascinator- a sort of miniature top hat.  I am currently working on a production of Seussical. The costumes for this show blend human and animal attributes in a funky way. I thought it would be fun to introduce a little pop culture into the costuming- steampunk in this case, and hip hop in another one. Warning- if you are a real milliner, you should probably stop reading now. No real millinery techniques were used in the creation of this fascinator. You have been warned!

I started by making a rough pattern. I wanted to make a miniature top hat with a somewhat distorted shape and a brim the size of a teacup saucer. Using brown craft paper, I cut a rectangle and worked in front of a mirror, trimming it until I got the approximate height and girth that I wanted. I squared it up, laid it out on my work table and cut slits, which I then overlapped and taped in place. 

As you can see, this changed the shape from a traditional stovepipe to a tapered top hat. I placed this on another piece of paper, traced around it, added a little size to make up for what I lost in the adjustments, smoothed the curves, etc. I taped the butted edges together so I could make the next piece- the top. 

I wanted a teardrop shaped top.  

Craft paper is nice to work with, because it has enough body to hold it’s shape while you are experimenting, enabling you to get a realistic idea of what it will look like once you’ve made it up. I then traced a small saucer for the brim, and trimmed it into an oval shape.

The base I use for this type of hat is Pellon Peltex 72F, a double sided fusible ultra firm stabilizer.  Other supplies include fabric, ribbons, trims, buttons, an ostrich feather, an alligator clip, clover clips, clothespins, and Fabritac. Knits and felt are the simplest to work with because they stretch and they don’t ravel.

next time- the completed project.