Sparkle Crafts

DIY Pirate Costume, Martin & Sylvia Style!

In our house we eat, sleep, and breathe pirates! Our four-year-old son, Ollie, is pirate-obsessed! He has pirate bedding, pirate curtains, a pirate-ship lamp; he sings pirate shanties, does pirate performances, and totes around his beloved pirate plushie. But most of all, he loves to DRESS UP like a pirate! And why wouldn't he!? Pirates can be mysterious, adventurous, and, most importantly, FUN!

It's not just little Ollie with the pirate obsession — pirates are a pretty big deal at Sparkle Stories, too! Our entire Windward Ho Collection centers around seven young girls as they journey the seven seas aboard the great pirate ship "The Windward" — and, of course, meet some real-life pirates along the way!

This particular Sparkle Craft is inspired by the Martin & Sylvia story "Pirates," where Daddy turns a regular Lake Day into a pirate-filled adventure aboard a pirate canoe, singing “Yo ho ho” and “Shiver me timbers!” — starting with using bits and bobs found around the house to dress up like pirates. This DIY Pirate Costume craft is super-easy to whip up and is a great last-minute costume idea that you can pull together with things around your house (or maybe a quick stop at your local craft or dollar store). Bonus: there's no sewing involved!

We're making:

• Pirate hat
• Pirate hook
• Pirate eye patch
• Pirate bandana
• Optional Black beard: you can also use face-paint to do the beard and patch if your child struggles with sensory issues. In our house, we found that Ollie didn't like the feeling of the beard, so we omitted that aspect. Comfort is top priority!

So, without further ado, here's how you can craft your very own Pirate Costume.

Step 1: Gather up your supplies! Here's your supply list (which you can amend to suit your needs and what you have):

1. Two pieces of black poster board
2. One piece of white poster board
3. Scissors
4. Hole punch
5. Stapler
6. Glue stick if you own a hot glue gun, that might be best and then you can omit the stapler and glue stick
7. Double-sided tape
8. Black tape (to cover staples)
9. Pencil or light colored crayon
10. Aluminum foil
11. A paper cup
12. Ruler or measuring tape
13. Black yarn or thick black string
14. A black or red bandana (or black or red fabric)
15. Black craft spider web (to make the beard!)

The Pirate Hat

This is what MAKES the costume! If you only had one thing to be a bonafide pirate, this is it! This hat was inspired by a pirate hat tutorial video I found on YouTube. I like the simplicity and the fact that you can size it directly to fit your child.

Step one: Cut a 4" strip of black poster board to be the base of the hat. Using your child's head, fit the strip around their head to ensure size and fit is correct. Once it's fitting well, using your stapler (or hot glue gun, if you have it) secure the fit of the base of the hat.

Step two: This is the "trickiest" part, as it's more freestyle. Using a 22" piece of black poster board, measure out 4" length on either side, then sketch out a pirate hat shape (see picture). Then, using your scissors, cut out the shape. You can use that cut-out to trace a second side of the hat.

Step three: Using double-sided tape (or a hot glue gun) adhere the two sides of your pirate hat to the base of the hat (you created in step one). Then, using staples, staple the ends of the hat together on either side. Take some black tape to cover-up the staples if you don't like the shiny bits showing.

Step four: Using the white poster board, cut out your skull and cross-bones. Again, this can just be free-handed, but if you prefer, there are free online templates for these. Since mine was free-handed, I opted to use my hole-punch to cut out the eyes and used a black marker to make the mouth. Once they are cut out, simply take your glue stick (or hot glue gun) and adhere to the center of your hat. Now you're a real pirate!

The Pirate Hook

This part is super-easy! All you need is a paper cup and some tin-foil! Cut a piece of foil large enough to cover the entirety of the cup, leaving an opening at the bottom for your child's little hand to fit in!

ADULTS ONLY take a pair of scissors and punch a small slit/hole in the top of the cup (through the foil). Important note: ensure it's small so that the hook will stay in place and firm!

Then, cut another length of foil to create the "hook" portion! Just roll the foil tightly together to form the hook. String the roll of foil through the hole at the top of your cup and bend to form the hook. Et voila! You have a pirate hook!

The Pirate Eye Patch

The eye-patch is an optional aspect of the costume, which you can substitute for face-paint if your child has any sensory issues (here's an example of face-paint we've done for Ollie in the past).

However, if they are game, it's super-simple to create! Just draw an eye patch design using black poster board and cut out.

Take a piece of black string or yarn and cut a strand large enough to fit your child's head (you can use the Pirate Hat Band as a size guide.) Then, using your hole-punch, cut out a hole on either side of the "patch" and thread the string/yarn through. Recommendation: I used some of my black tape to fasten around either end of my yarn to make it easier to string through and to avoid any fraying.

Pirate Bandana

This part doesn't really require any crafting, if you happen to have a black or red bandanas lying around! We didn't so we had to get 'crafty' and used an old black t-shirt we had that no longer fit and upcycled it to create a black pirate scarf to wrap around Ollie's neck.

Optional: You can also do a head-wrap with the bandana, if your child prefers!

Pirate Beard

Again, the pirate beard is optional (and didn't work for Ollie's sensory needs), but if your child is game, you can easily craft one using black spider web (that you can purchase from any craft or dollar store).

Using your black string, cut out little ear loops (ensure you measure to size). Pulling out an appropriate amount of the spider web in a beard-like shape, you can then weave the string you've cut through the top of spider web and tie knots to create the ear loops.

And there you have it! Your very own little pirate costume. The beauty of this costume is that you can amend however you wish, and there are always options to add MORE to it as you see fit (like adding a feather to the hat, using a compass, a striped shirt, or adding a parrot stuffie).

Looking for MORE awesome Sparkle Stories pirate content? Check-out our Storybox Playlist: Pirate Stories - perfect for listening while you craft your costume!

Happy Halloween, Sparkle Mateys!

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