Arrrrr! Here There Be Pirates!

Although my original Pirate Costume (Pirettes of the Cariboobean) due date isn't until October and the "Pirates of Penzance" Tea for Costume College is up in two weeks, I was jamming on the "starter" pirate costumes for both me and my S.O. to wear to a GBACG Pirate Bonfire, held Saturday, July 20,  at Ocean Beach, in San Francisco.  First off, I knew I didn't have time to make coats, so I thought we'd wrap ourselves in various shawls for warmth because it's always cold at Ocean Beach. I didn't even have time to make my sweetie a waistcoat.  Gone were the elaborate plans for a baldric - those plastic guns and swords would just have to get stuck in our waist sashes.

I ended up with a finished man's poet shirt (Simplicity 3758), two puffy pants and a peasant blouse (Simplicity 3677), and purchased sashes, head scarves, striped socks and replica Jack Sparrow flintlock  from Pirate Fashions. I'd actually visited that shop in Florida last year and loved their stuff. The boot covers were purchased last year and are just cheapie costume stuff (the elastic broke while putting them on).  The Tricorn was purchased in Italy on our vacation last year (who'da thunk you could buy an inexpensive quality wool tricorn in Italy???) and the other weapons are from various dollar stores from last Halloween. I didn't have time to modify any of the weapons, but that didn't matter as you couldn't see them because we were wrapped in shawls due to the cold!  It was 98 degrees in our neck of the woods and 48 degrees with an 8 knot wind in Ocean Beach. We had enough time to roast our hot dogs, share the Rice Krispy Treats, drink some hot tea and get the heck outta there!

Of course, Gizmo, the pirate dog, was the hit of the party. He hated his pirate scarf and tricorn and vigorously tried to shake them off whenever possible, thus elicidating some engineering problems I had not foreseen. It ended up around his neck most of the time, especially when he took off after that seagull!

Now I get to try out the vodka-water spritzing I've read about to see if that takes out smoke smell - don't want to launder them as they were only worn for a bit over an hour and the tea dye might lighten!

Hey, is anyone out there afraid of being shot by the police for wearing a replica flintlock and carrying a flimsy plastic knife? Gotta love our Modern Times...

And here's how it really was - could really see the costume because of the cold. But the dog looks good...

Big engineering problem with the dog hat/scarf combo. It just didn't want to stay on top of his head.  HE didn't want it there either!