Patterns for coats, shirts and pants

[Charity Sweetlove]

I was wondering if any one had some recommendations for either good pictures to inspire garb, or knew of some very good patterns. I had picked up some Simplicity patterns (their colonial costume patterns) and with a bit of altering I found that they worked ok, but I was wondering if there were any other suggestions?

[Katey O'Tierney]

Alter Years (http://www.alteryears.com/), Harper House (http://www.alteryears.com/) and Amazon Dry Goods(http://www.amazondrygoods.com/) companies have patterns available. Alter years: you can brouse their catalog online and has their own "Pirate" pattern not available by the other two. Realze that these are a bit more expensive than what you will pay at the local fabric store, and they are ususally printed on newsprint or heavy white paper.

Look not only for the Pirate outfits, but also in the time frame of French Restoration thru American colonial, these will also suit well.

Katey O'T

[Red Maria]

I was wondering if any one had some recommendations for either good pictures to inspire garb, or knew of some very good patterns.  I had picked up some Simplicity patterns (their colonial costume patterns) and with a bit of altering I found that they worked ok, but I was wondering if there were any other suggestions?

You might try looking at period illustrations and portraiture. Hogarth tends to be later than the Golden Age of Priacy but dress in his iluatrations ("Rakes Progress", "Begger's Opera" Harlot's Progress) are great and can give you inspiration. Also try and find a copy GHP with early edition illutrations in it. you might find that rewarding. If all else fails play your favorite pirate film.

[redhand]

Charity-

There are a few patterns available out there

besides the simplicity. Smoke & Fire has some

as well as a few others I can't remember of the top

of my head. My friend Bill A. has a business called

"Middling Sort" You may contact hime through

his site and he could recommend a few I'm sure

His site is: www.middlingsort.com

The Hogarth books are EXCELLENT examples of early

1700's clothing, lots of great ideas

Tell him his friend Jeff sent you.

-Redhand

[Capt. Westyn Elizabeth Roberts]

Greetin's to ye!

I have lots of ideas, and I am on a severe budget, since in the real world, I'm a journalism student who waited 10 years to go to college.

Okay, this is a long spill, so beware...

Well, I have had problems, like you, when it comes to patterns and clothing pieces that will look like period clothing. However, I have found out that the Goodwill store is your best bet to find material and other things that can be altered. Have you seen how many shirts with poofy sleeves they carry? And, just look at all the "broomstick" skirts! And old bedspreads/tablecloths/curtains make a great chunk of material. I got a full sized brown velvet bedspread for three bucks! It made a great RenFest/Halloween outfit!

A lot of people consider Goodwill yucky or out of style, but a pirate gal like myself can see lots of potential. Anyway, the Goodwill stuff gets cleaned as soon as it comes through my front door. Also, if you have a white shirt, but you want a more natural look, forget about dye. Soak it in weak tea. It gives that "dirty pirate look" if you miss spots, but it will give an aged appearance if you soak it thoroughly and maybe add a little heat.

As a matter of fact, my honey wanted to have a Scottish appeal (his heritage is English/Scottish) for the upcoming RenFest here in TN, and he wants a kilt and a sleeveless, lace up shirt, pouch and moggans (leg wraps to match the kilt).

I am going to take one of his dress shirts, rip off the buttons and sleeves, dip it in tea, and then replace the buttons with eyelets and laces.

The point is, you can make normal stuff look not so normal, if you alter just a tad.

I also found out that there's a little fabric store right down the road from me that sells fabric (good fabric) from $1 per yard to $3 per yard. I found a square yard of leather LIKE material for $2 per yard. I am going to make some armbands, vambraces and a pouch for him out of that material.

The point is, you don't need a lot of money to make an awesome costume. Just a lot of imagination.

In fact, I made a pretty decent pirate jacket out of a red dress that didn't meet in the front. I attached tassels, gold and black ribbon down the front and back, gold cording, stiffened epaulets with fringe (on the shoulders).

I won a pirate costume contest in 2000 ($75), and one in 2002 ($50) wearing an outfit that I thought wouldn't last me one Halloween. Not bad for a yard sale dress with $15 worth of trimmin', huh?

I made another great pirate jacket that my honey won first place in 2002 with, (dressed as Captain Morgan, BTW) that was made from a black tux jacket, hot glue and about $10 worth of trim.

Also, if you're looking for a pirate hat, don't dispair when you see those $200-$400 price tags on the Net. The hat I wore is a black felt cowboy hat (that met its fate when someone sat on it). It didn't look much like a cowboy hat anymore, and I was about to throw it away. I didn't, though, and later, I hot glued the two front sides up and then the back side up to make a tricorn shape. I also looked at pictures of pirates in pictures and movies, and I decorated it with feather boas, marabou, gold cording, and tassels. It looks pretty neat and has lasted 3 years. Again, about $7 worth of trimming and stuff I found around the house. No sewing, just like the dress. All hot glue. All stuck for 3 years.

Anyway, take inventory in your crafts box, look around at everything and don't think about what it is. Think about what it COULD BE. That's the way to do it.

Good luck.

Oh! And also, Chivalry Sports store has some quality clothes and patterns that are Medieval to Renaissance and Elizabethan era. You might try there.

http://www.renstore.com

Some are kinda pricey, so I would look at McCall's and Simplicity first. Walmart stores usually take half off of their patterns. I can't remember if it's McCall's or Simplicity. It's pretty simple to replace zippers with laces or buttons up the back. Also, check out the Fun N Folly website.

http://www.funfolly.com

And, another specialty costume site that I like is Highland Rags. Their dresses seem to be familiar McCalls and Simplicity patterns, but you don't have to make them yourself, if you don't wanna. That's me. I don't sew. I hot glue. I let my Mama do the sewin'. I do the lootin'.

http://www.highlandrags.com

Remember...Have fun! Pirates only work hard at partying and getting the booty; not making the costume! I hope I helped more than I totally bored you.

Capt. WE Roberts

[captweaver65]

Capt. WE Roberts,

that all was REALLY great info

your enthusiasm will inspire many people as it has me

what good is life without our passions

Capt Weaver

[BloodyBuckets]

Just wanted to chime in with a couple more pattern ideas.

Instead of fitted costume patterns, my crew took existing inexpensive patterns that had the right elements and modified them to fit. These costumes are suitable for scurvey pirates, not your fancied-up Captain's finery.

Examples:

Pirate shirt from a Western shirt pattern (Western shirts have the right kind of yoke build around the shoulders). Just cut the sleeves about twice as full and alter or remove the collar, and you're all set with a pretty authentic early 18th century shirt.

Seaman's slops from pajamas. This is my favorite. Get a Simplicity men's pajama pattern, extend it to make the equivalent of a size 60 waist, shorten the legs, and replace the elastic waistband with a drawstring or belt lacings. The extra large waist gathers up and gives a spectacular look.

Some other suggestions.

If you're looking for good period patterns for fitted breeches and such, you might also want to check Jas. Townsend and Son. They also sell great costume pieces and accessories at OK prices.

If you're looking for some costume inspirations, you might want to rent a couple movies and keep your thumb on the pause button: Especially good for costumes are Roman Polanski's Pirates, Cutthroat Island, and Muppet Treasure Island. Cutthroat Island is a particularly good source for more realistic early 18th century stuff.

-Bloody Buckets

Arrrggghhh - this IS me good eye

[Capt. Westyn Elizabeth Roberts]

Ahoy!

Yep. It's me again. Your notorious noisemaker. It seems I have an opinion for everything, and you'll probably find me on all the boards.

Anyway, I had the problem about covering my honey's modern tattoos for the RenFest, but I solved it...armbands.

Right. You can take a length of leather or leatherette and punch holes in the ends to lace it together around your arm, ankle, etc. This will not only cover up modern-looking tattoos, but it will also enhance your costume! Don't call me creative (or late for dinner). Just call me cheap.

Arrrgh!

Capt. WE Roberts

[Capt. Westyn Elizabeth Roberts]

Charity and Brenna:

I found some great patterns on the Simplicity website. Just so you don't have to dig to find them, they are as follows:

Simplicity 5958. This is a colonial captain's jacket, but could be made to look like a pirate coat very easily.

Simplicity 7224. This is a Civil War officer's costume, but also could make a decent pirate jacket.

Simplicity 9966. This looks like a wenchy costume.

Besides, Simplicity does make easy to follow patterns and instructions. The sizes are true, and I believe you'll like the results.

www.simplicity.com

Arrgh!

Capt. WE Roberts

[Charity Sweetlove]

*has printed out this for easy reference*

*then dances the dance of happy*

Pirate clothes! Woo! I mean Arrrrgh!

ok, some nifty things that I discovered were:

Fabric at the Swapmeet.

Prowling around at the local swapmeet a friend and I found a guy who sold silk for $2.50 a yard. *faints* silk's so sezzy!

Cowboy boots at the Thriftstores:

ok, this part takes an exacto-knife, a leather awl and needle, some leather, and lots of creativity.

Take the leather cowboy boot and hack it off at the seam where the leg extends up. Then finish it with some leather (to cover up the seam that you just made nekkid) and put a big buckle on it. Look pirate low cut boots! or.... to the cowboy boot (oh and they have to have a square toe) take some leather and make a cuff out of it. Stitch it to the leather upper. Add lace, or ribbon, trim, cloth, jewels, a monkey whatever strikes your fancey. It makes pirate boots that are inexpensive and with a bit of practice are very nifty and you ~Know~ that your shoes are unique.

Hat blanks:

Pick up a $20 dollar hat blank from Jas Townsend (you can get the hat blank or the plain tricorner actually)

Grab a glue gun (by the not hot end)

Get lace or maribu (great finds at the swap meet btw), jewels, bits of bone beads, whatnots and thingy-ma-bobs.

Decide how you want the basic hat to look (tricorner, or maybe cavilier, or just tip up the front, or leave it all flat) then soften the edge by hiding it with the maribu or lace or powerder monkey.

Drink some rum. (it had to be said)

and decorate with wild abandon. (tamed abandon is just soo.... tame)

take shots (of rum) through out the decoration process and just remember when dealing with the glue gun the cool part goes in your hand, not the hot.

=-)

[Stynky Tudor]

Wow, these are some great ideas! I really like the idea about pillaging old cloth from bed sheets, blankets and the like. Thrift shops rule!

Do any of you have a camera, scanners or digital camera? It would be great to share examples of the work.

I actual made a couple pairs of over the knee pirate breechs that tie around the waist. I made them out of an old IKEA canvas couch cover that was stained, ripped and needed to be retired. Since the fabric was a brightish cyan blue, I bleached the material a few times. After I had sewn everything together they were still on the bright blue side. So I boiled them and boiled them and boiled them in a combination of tea bags and brown clothes dye. Aside from setting the dye into the fabric, boiling them seemed to break down the fibers a bit so the material wasn’t so stiff.

The idea was to make them look as though they were made out of sail cloth. And I need to modify the design, the waist should ride up a bit higher and the legs flare out a bit.

I was thinking I would post a picture of them but, realized that I must have gotten rid of them, we moved across country about a year ago.

If anyone is interested, I’ll formalize the simple pattern and make it available on the web.

[Capt. Westyn Elizabeth Roberts]

Sure thing! I'd love to post the pics on this site. I'll try to see how much damage I can do with my digital camera tomorrow. It's a little late to be tearing the house apart trying to find all the piratey stuff.

As soon as I can figure out how to work my digital camera when it comes to this site, I'll post a picture of my hats and my jackets. Remember, they were made from old clothes and hot glue, no sewing involved.

Arrgh!

Capt. WE Roberts

[Capt. Westyn Elizabeth Roberts]

Oh, and by the way, Stinky...

The hat I'm wearing in my avatar picture to the left

<= is another cowboy hat that was demolished when a

heavy box was squished on top of it. I just reshaped the

top, punched holes in the side of the hat and the brim,

laced it up with leather cord, hot glued a dandy button on,

and dressed it up with ostrich and pheasant plumes.

By the way, that look on my face is not meant to be sexy.

It's my "Why won't this damned camera work right?" look.

See ya.

Capt. WE Roberts

[Stynky Tudor]

Aye Capt WE, That be a fine avatar picture whether ye trying to appear sexy or not.

In my avatar picture I was trying to look sexy but everyone just sees to laugh.

[Stynky Tudor]

I really want to see some images of your salvaged-converted cowboy hats, I’m real intrigued with the possibilities. I’ve been a bit frustrated with the slouch hat blanks that I’ve made into Caviler, Tricorne and flat brimmed pirate hates.

Though I really like the quality of the Jas. Townsend hat blanks, for a colors other than black, I’ve also bought slouch hat blanks from Lady Mac Snood’s and Blockade Runner.

The slouch hats from Jas. Townsend and Lady Mac Snood’s are great and are pretty consistent in quality. With a boiling pot of water, a hot iron and a sprits I can pretty much get them to do bend to my will.

The Blockade Runner slouch hat blanks vary though. From felt that’s thick and hard to work with to thin felt that can be pulled apart if one stretches or works them too much. These blanks aren't bad for those who really want hard for their hats. Trust me, what you see in the picture isn't what you get.

If you can’t tell already, I’m a little obsessed with hat making…

What I really want are felt hat blanks that have brims larger than the usual 4-5 inches. I did some research, bought some hat blocks/hat forms and figured that I would just have to make my own felt hat blanks. Of course that’s easier said than done, making felt from wool is hard work.

Say, has anyone tried making a pirate hat out of a Mexican style sombrero?

Here's some links to the places I mentioned, sorry for duplication:

Jas. Townsend & Family

http://www.jastown.com/

http://www.jastown.com/hats/hb-902.htm

Lady MacSnood

http://www.snoods.com/

http://www.snoods.com/hats.html

Blockade Runner

http://www.blockaderunner.com/

http://www.blockaderunner.com/Catalog/catpg16.htm

[Stynky Tudor]

Pirate Charity, I see a lot of posts here that reference clothing patterns and it looks like a couple people have even hijacked your thread and started talking about hats. ( Now people, please try and stay on topic *sigh* )

Ok, if you’re looking for some great visual reference, there’s always the classic pirate drawings and paintings of Howard Pyle. I’ve done a internet search but, can’t seem to find a good one-stop repository of his images online.

Some time ago, I a saw a great coffee table type picture book of his works, it was awesome and out of my budget. At the time I just thought that I would go back and pick it up later or maybe wait to see it on remainder, well I think we all know how that turned out.

The couple books that I have purchased of Howard Pyle’s works have been disappointing. The graphic plates look horrible, poor quality black and white reproductions, dark, muddy halftones that look like bad Xerox copies.

You should also check out NC Wyeth, he was a student of Howard Pyle and did some great pirate themed paintings as well.

If you’re looking for something a bit more accessible, I think the “Elite” books series of Sea Dogs, Buccaneers and Pirates, illustrated by Angus McBride are great. Unfortunately, there’s only a small handful of MacBride’s illustrations in each book. I still think they are well worth it, if not for the illustrations then for the history and information.

In fact Osprey publishing, has a whole slue of related period books.

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/

Elizabethan Sea Dogs 1560-1605

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_deta...e=S0153~ser=ELI

Buccaneers 1620-1700

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_deta...e=P9123~ser=ELI

Pirates 1660-1730

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_deta...e=P7066~ser=ELI

[Capt. Westyn Elizabeth Roberts]

Ahoy Stynky, Charity!

If you're looking for pirate artwork to base clothing from, I suppose you could do worse than any Don Maitz website or a Boris Vallejo/Julie Bell website. True, some of it is fantasy art, but some of the costumes are very elaborate, and you can get some good ideas.

Also, the best idea I could give you for making your own garb is to get a dress form. There are several reasons why. For one, you don't have to see your boyfriend in a skirt. Another, you can have an exact size of yourself (one that won't bitch and complain). Also, using that method, you could just pin stuff around to your own custom size, sew it up and make it your own. Forget the patterns. Who needs 'em? I'm all for dress forms.

http://www.borisjulie.com

Good luck!

Capt. WE Roberts

[Mad Woman Cheryl]

I found that Simplicity had a "scrubs" pattern, which is probably like the pj one. The pants work fine and I enlarged the pant leg. I did find a pattern for the vest, which is from a French Tailor's book that I will try to make in the next couple of months. At least this is easier than some other things I have done.

[Capt. Westyn Elizabeth Roberts]

Ahoy, there!

I must, once again, reiterate my comment about consignment and thrift stores. Just last week, I bought a natural-colored ruffly "piratey" shirt at a thrift store for $1! It looks brand new! Also, I found a cheap little store that sells fabric and miscellaneous items right down the road from me. I found a pair of pants with huge legs, like the pirate pants most costume companies advertise for $50.....Only, mine were $3, brand new!

I'm going back to Goodwill tomorrow to check out curtains, tablecloths, bedspreads--anything that could make a chunk of material. After all, most of the time, you only need about a yard of material to make a bodice. And, with the 99 cent sales going on at Goodwill, I'm looking for bedspreads and curtains! I found a blue velvet dress for 99 cents last week that I am going to be using for hats and small accessories.

Go to Goodwill! Support your community and your budget!

Capt. WE Roberts

[Stynky Tudor]

Pictures, pictures, pictures, I want to see some pictures, especially that hat work of yours Capt Roberts.

[capnwilliam]

Aye, Stynky, thanks for mentioning and listing the Osprey works. I have always found their works well-illustrated and informative yet still interesting for the average reader.

Capt. William

[Stynky Tudor]

Aye, I've always liked theOsprey books for general art and information. But I really love the Angus McBride illustrations, great stuff, I can't get enough of them.

[Capt. Westyn Elizabeth Roberts]

Stynky:

I had left a few instructions on how I made my Cavalier hat as pictured in the avatar, but my messages keep getting erased. Arrgh! Stop that!

Anyway, basically, what I did was reshape the crown and brim of the dilapidated cowboy hat (by hand), punch two holes in the left side of the crown and the left brim (with a grommet hole punch), tie those together by running leatherette cording through the holes and then I hot-glued a nice nautical button on the outside, so the cording wouldn't show as much. I stuck ostrich and pheasant plumes into the tight little knot in the cording, and...voila! A fine hat that is guaranteed to poke the eyes out of anyone standing less than two feet behind you. Just ask everyone behind me and my honey at the TN RenFest! Haha!

As for the tricorne, just find the center, hot-glue up the front two sides and the back side. Attach multiple feather boas and some cording. I got stopped several times about that hat at the RenFest. One guy demanded that I tell him where I got it, because he's a sailor. I told him, $20 Walmart cheapie hat, one drunk in a bar who sat down on the poor hat, lots of feathers, hot glue, creativity and patience.

Yours,

Capt. WE Roberts

[Capt. Flint]

Another hat source.... I found my cavalier hat from a catalog..Chivlary Sports.. or on line at ren store.com.. It is a plain round felt hat that can be made into a variety of different hats. With shipping it comes to around thirty dollars. I made one into a cavalier hat and I am making another into a tricorn hat. Simply fold the sides the way you like them and sew in to place. With my cavalier one, I just folded one side up and use a pin I bought from the ren fair to pin it up with and stuck a variety of feathers in it that I like..... Fun and easy and not NEARLY as expensive as the two that Katey owns. But, then hey she is a lady..... The Capt.

[Dorian Lasseter]

Oh, I'll throw in my Piece o' Eight...

Two good sources fer hats;

www.smoke-fire.com

www.jastown.com

Two excellent stores fer the reenactor, very helpful folk....