DIY tutorial for Easy boys pirate costume (under £7)

Me an my little boy are going to a Pirates & Princess' party this weekend, very exciting! This post will be about how I created his costume and I will do another post about how I did my Princess Jasmine costume (yes i am getting dressed up to!!!)

Please note when I say under £7 It is because I tried to use what I already had as much as possible. I bought the red t-shirt, stripey tights and skull patch from ebay which came to £6.50 the rest of the stuff I already had and you probably will to!

my little pirate

What you will need

• head scarf / bandana or fabric to make one
• fabric for eye patch
• elastic
• interfacing (optional)
• t-shirt
• skull and crossbone patch
• fabric for applique design (optional)
• Striped tights 
• jeans or other pants that no longer fit
• black boots (I used tatty brown boots and spray painted them black)

Bandana

I was lucky enough to have this scarf, which works quite well for a pirate bandana. I simply folded it into a triangle and tied the long sides at the back of the head. You will find a suitable scarf in any charity shop for around a £1 or you could make your own by cutting a large square from fabric, folding over raw edges, finishing the edges and then folding into a triangle like I did.

Eye patch

For the eye patch I used a red and white striped fabric. I drew my pattern free hand onto paper first, checked it was the right size for Malachy's eye then pinned it onto my folded fabric so I had 2 identical pieces and cut out with a 1/4inch seam allowance all around.

I then cut a layer of interfacing using the pattern without the seam allowance. pin fabric pieces right sides together and iron down interfacing to one of your fabric pieces wrong side.

sew together using interfacing as your seam allowance guide. leave 1inch or so open to turn right side out. press once sewn. measure elastic round head and then sew the ends of the elastic to either side of the patch. top stitch all along patch.

I really wanted to use the striped fabric but an even easier option would be to use felt or leather as you would only need one layer.

Top

Take your striped tights and cut out the crotch and the closed feet parts, like so - 

You will now be able to put over the head and use the tights on the arms instead of the legs.

I thought my patch was a little small for the t-shirt so decided to do an applique design as well but you could skip this step and simply iron or sew patch directly onto your t-shirt.

I ironed my patch onto a t-shirt fabric, cut around it leaving 2 inches or so and then ironed onto interfacing. I then folded my fabric over twice and drew a pattern for the bone part and cut out which left me with 4 bone pieces. I then also added interfacing to theses pieces. I pinned my applique design onto t-shirt and sewed down the raw edges using a tight zig zag stitch.

Pants

For the pants I used a pair of black jeans that were already on the short side. Leggings would also work well. I cut one leg couple of inches below the knee. Folded over and then cut the other leg using the leg i'd cut as a guide this ensures both legs are the same length.

I then cut out little triangles all around the bottom legs.

shoes

I didn't have suitable boots but if you do you could skip this step. Wellies would also look good! I used a tatty pair of brown boots stuffed them with newspaper and spray painted them black. Make sure you do this outside!!!

and ta da! Pirate costume completed! ooo ahh shiver me timbers!