Pirate Costume for a Girl

Ya, I know.

There is nothing too unique about a pirate costume for Halloween.

You are likely to see 7 or 8 of them show up at your door Halloween night.

But, truth be told, I have begged my girls for 2 years to agree on being a family of pirates. Heck, I might even dress up if they went for that!

I mean, who wouldn’t want to say things like “SHIVER ME, TIMBERS!” and “AHOY, MATEY!” for one day!

Well, finally this year I successfully convinced at least one of them.

When she gave me the go-ahead, I was THRILLED to get started on making the costume. I knew with her long hair and cheek-ish grin, she would be the perfect pirate.

As soon as the costume was complete, she tried it on and was as giddy as a little school girl for hours. She completely gets into character (as you can see).

In fact, I couldn’t get her to be serious for 2 seconds while taking these pictures.

But then again. What pirate has ever been too serious.

Daddy topped the costume off with the coolest gold sword. Carved in our very own garage.

It was the sweetest thing my eyes have ever seen. They sat down together one night discussing the weapon of choice. And together they got onto pinterest (PINTEREST!!!) and she found just the right one that she wanted.

And with her puppy dog eyes, she looked up to her daddy and said, “Daddy, can you make that one?”

And knowing my brilliant husband, he scoffed inside. Then he walked out to his garage, and an hour later came back with a sword far better then the one they had seen. This wooden sword has grooves, and edges, and the perfect handle – all topped off with an emerald gem.

Oh, what a happy little girl she was (with such a satisfied father).

Of course, I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I was quite satisfied myself, with how this costume came out. I sure hoped it would.

It is a pretty traditional pirate style, with just a few special handmade touches. I started by sewing up a simple raglan sleeve top out of muslin, with a gathered neckline. Then I gathered the sleeves close to the wrist. What I love about the top, is that it looks great with some of her skirts that she can wear to school or church. It will get more than 1 use!!

Then I drew up a pattern for a simple vest. It is made out of vinyl which has a faux leather look. I found two styles of trim to add to the curves of the vest. One had the eyelets already in it for the lace-up, which saved me the step of making my own fabric with eyelets in it. All my fabric and trim came from Joann’s.

Then I sewed up a very simple skirt, and used the leftovers to make a fabric piece to tie around her head. For the black waist tie, I basically cut a very large triangle out of a piece of black spandex material, which doesn’t fray and has a nice stretch to it. Easy as that.

My hope is that the other kids see how cool it is to be a pirate, and next year we will all have a chance to be “scurvy dogs” together. I do believe that might be the key to getting me to dress up.