Create your Pirate Costume
and Jack Sparrow Costume.

I don't blame your for wanting to create your pirate costume or wanting to get it somehow. These pirate costumes have always been a good choice for your costume parties: halloween parties, carnival, etc. or you may want to buy them in Costume Express with Free Shipping on Halloween Costumes and a very desired 15% off in 2009 Halloween costumes on orders $70 or more using code: eerie99

Pirates have got their own style. They are tough people with rough manners that sail the seas and they don't tend to outstand because of their super higienical ways of living. They drive tough lives so that they get their clothes dirty, ripped and shredded. They tend to go usually with baggy long-legged white or striped shirts, preferably shredded black or brown trousers or skirts in case of ladies, a kind of a three-cornered, Napoleon-styled hat or a raggedy bandanna, some high black boots, a wide belt with a big buckle and lots of extras like big hoop earrings, bangles, pearl-shaped necklaces, etc.

Some movie series like Pirates of the Caribbean have made pirate costumes even more appealing to imitate.OK. So we give you the ideas for you to create your own pirate costume and don't feel guilty if you slip away a bit from them. They are only patterns.

(I love pirate costumes: a colourful bandanna covering the head, a pirate eye patch, a white and baggy pirate costume shirt with a few buttons undone at the top, a black vest, etc.)
Me on a pirate costume with a
turtledove ready for pirate party games.

So let's go for some action to get your pirate costume ready or name it Jack Sparrow custome (Jackie Sparrow for the ladies):

1. The Clothes: The clothes are indeed the most important aspect of your pirate costume! First let's go through the items you will need to get and then we will check where to find them.

* Trousers - The trousers should preferably be black, although grey and brown are possible options. There are two different ways in which you can create your pants. The first way is to get black pants that are a little tight. Do not get them so that they are so tight that they are uncomfortable, but tight enough so that they are snug to your skin. The second way its to get black trousers that are quite baggy. After you get these pants you will take them and cut the bottoms of the legs off so that they are just below the knee. You should cut the bottoms in a zig zag pattern, so that they look old and worn out or can try to burn the very bottoms or the edges of them. A pirate is an adventurous person who is likely to have survived a fire therefore their clothes could have been exposed to some flames in some degree. Making holes in some parts of your trousers would make you look a more experienced and braver pirate as well.Coffee stains are quite remarkable and noticeable so they can help you to look even more savage.

* Skirts - If you are woman and you wish to dress up like a female pirate, all you need to do is get a black skirt instead of pants. The skirt can be long or short. If you choose a long skirt, the best is to get a peasant type of skirt. If you choose a short one, it is best to get something knee length so that you may take some scissors and tear up the bottom to cut it shorter and to make it look tattered and old.

* Shirt - The pirate custome shirt is simple. All you need to get is a white long sleeved button-up shirt. You will want to make sure that the shirt is not too dressy and not too business-like. The baggier the better, and you will want to leave a few buttons undone at the top. Remember that pirates weren't always the cleanest of people either so feel free to try and stain it up a little bit, or even tear it in certain areas. If you are able to locate a long-sleeved white shirt that has ruffles on the cuffs and maybe even a victorian style ruffle on the collar, then you are very lucky! This would suit a pirate costume well!

* Vest - For the vest, you are looking for pretty much any black or red vest. Try to avoid any that might have designs on them, unless it is just a striped pattern or something which would still suit the costume. If you cannot find either of these colors, and you can find white, you should be able to dye the vest. You can find RIT dye at almost every craft store in the country. They are easy to use even if you have never used them before.

2. Accessories: The accessories are also very important as part of the pirate costume!

* Boots (Shoes could possibly be used too, but preferably avoid them)- Pretty much any tall black boots will work. You can also use brown boots. Army boots usually suit for a pirate costume better than a work boot. If you are able to find the type of leather boot that folds over at the top, that would be great! For a woman, the boots can be a bit more extravagant. They can even be high-heeled and with some more colours. In case you can't find the right kind of boots, don't feel like buying them or you are just going tight with money, just wear black or brown leather shoes with a rather sharp not round long front end partially covering them with some long trousers getting aproximately to the ankles level.* Hat or Bandanna - For long or short hair, these are great ways to accessorize your pirate costume. Find yourself a pirate style hat, and put the bandanna on your head under it. The bandanna could either be black or red. You do not have to wear the hat, you can just wear the bandanna. If you do have longer hair, you might consider putting a few braids in your hair here and there to give it that authentic pirate look and to suit with your pirate hat costume.

* Pirate eye patch - You can create it out of some black carboard o white one painted black. A pirate eye patch should be round and should have approximately between 2-3 inches of diameter (5-7.5 cms.) just to cover the eye, the eyebrow and slightly the top part of the cheek or it should be eliptical. Then cut two fine cardobard blacks strips and stick them on each side of the eye pach that will get together with some zelotape by the nape of the neck in order to hold the eye patch to the face or just make two tiny holes on the sides of the eye patch and with a little piece of very slim rope pass it through the holes to make an eye patch strap to hold it to your face. As an alternative you could draw on the black patch or stick to it the typical pirate sign: a white skull with two bones crossing each other underneath.

Additional tips: Select a few of the dreadlocks and crisscross-tie them with red string. Add bits of bone, silver beads, and/or a small feather to the hat/hair.

* Belt or Sash - There are two things you can do for this. You can find a belt, which should be a very wide belt with a bigger buckle preferably, and should be black or brown, depending on the colors of the rest of your pirate costume. You can also choose to wear a sash. This should be red usually, but black will work as well. The best thing to use is a red long scarf to tie around your waist. Remember that both of these will be tied on the outside of your white button-up shirt.

* Jewelry and Earrings - If you have pierced ears, then a few gold hoop earrings will be a great addition to your costume. You can use silver earrings too but preferably bright golden or looking like gold because pirates used to wear those jewels that they meant to find in the treasure chests and those jewels who stole from the people and the cargo of the ships that they attacked. Moreover as they used to be tanned always golden bright jewels and earrings made a bigger contrast with their skin than silver or more fainted colours. Any other jewelry is completely up to you. Wear whatever you think looks good. Remember that pirates were flashy, so anything will do!

* Sword - Of course you will want to get a toy sword for safety reasons, but what pirate is complete without one? Perhaps as well you may want to get a fake cutlass and a flintlock pistol for your weapons like Jack Sparrow.

* Make-up. Men and specially women can wear it. Whilst men make-up should be limited to black and dark calours around the eyes, women's make up can be much more extravagant, colourful and exotic. There are no standards for women but always try to intensify your eyes with some black, dark shades and the rest it is just up to your creativity and imagination. Lipsticks can be of quite flashy colours too.On the other hand pirates used to spend most of their time sailing over the seas and specially the buccaneers (pirates of the Caribbean)used to be rather tanned than pale so for a perfect skin colour shade if you are quite blond or pale it would be ideal if you start using some hidrating suntan lotion or cream or some suntan tissues about a week or two before you get disguised. You can buy these in almost any drugstore and you will become slighly tanned looking natural. (I use suntan lotions all over the year and I can assure you that)

3. Where to Find All of It for your pirate costume: Finding all of these items is much easier than you might think, and much cheaper as well!

* Your Own House - The first place you will want to check is your own house and closet! You never know when you might have an article of clothing or accessory that will suit your pirate costume just fine!

* Second Hand Stores or Local Thrift Stores - The second place you would like to check out and the most important is your local second hand store! Go to places like the Salvation Army, Goodwill, in Spain we've got Humana and any other stores in your area that are secondhand and dig in! Some second hand stores like Humana promote with part of the money they earn to good causes such as building schools and paying children's education in poor African countries. You may want to buy some cheap pirate costume pieces in second hand stores that as well promote good causes and not only their own business. You would be surprised at what you can find in these establishments! You may even be able to find boots and other accessories for your pirate costume.

* Garage Sale - The third place is at garage sales! This is similar to going to a second hand store--the only difference is you are most likely going to pay even less! You might find a shirt or pants for 70 cents. Any cheaper somewhere else?

* Costume Store - Costume stores are the last place you would want to shop for anything in your pirate costume. There are some items that may be harder to find--such as the hat--that you may need to look at a costume store for. As I said you can take advantage now with free shipping and discounts for 2009 halloween costumes in Costume Express online store.

* Toy Store - The last place you will need to go to is a toy store, primarily for the sword. This can be found in stores of different kinds.