Aye Matey!

The weekend has come and gone, and so has the pirate themed 60th birthday party. The pirate shirt project was pretty fun, and helped me get more into the dress up part of the party (usually not my thing). It was also about as much work as I thought it would be, but crammed into a week and a half. Just in case you're thinking about making your own costume for your next party.. here's how you do it:

Step One: Find/borrow/buy a sewing machine, if you don't already have one. I got mine for Christmas last year :)

Step Two: Go to the fabric store, look through the books and pick out a pattern. I chose this one, and planned on making the upper right shirt (D).

Step Three: Read the back of the pattern and figure out how much and what type of fabric, thread and accessories you need to purchase. Purchase those.

Step Four: Read the instructions, maybe twice, to get an idea of what you'll need to do and in what order. Figure out which parts of the pattern you'll be using and cut those pieces out.

Step Five: Lay the pattern pieces out on the fabric according to the instructions.

Step Six: Pin the pattern pieces onto the fabric.

Step Seven: Cut fabric according to the pattern.

Step Eight: Transfer markings from the pattern onto the fabric, using a fabric pen that washes out or disappears in a certain amount of time. Make sure to mark the right and wrong sides if there is a difference on your fabric. The right side is the side you'll want facing out when you're done.

Step Nine: Remove pins and put the pattern aside, you may need to refer to it again. Arrange the fabric pieces so that you can easily find the parts you need.

Step Ten: Read the instructions again. The instructions will tell you what to do, and how to do it. However, some brands of patterns give better instructions and explanations as others (according to my mom, who would know, my pattern brand didn't give very good instructions/explanations). Figure out which instructions apply to your pattern, and which instructions are for the other shirts/garments (called 'views') in your pattern. Some instructions will be the same for all views, and some instructions will be for only one or two of the views.

Step Eleven: Follow the instructions, sewing each piece together as the instructions indicate. This is obviously where the bulk of the time is spent. Get comfortable!

(this is actually my mom's machine, I did
most of the sewing when I was at her house)

The instructions should walk you through everything you need to know, but like my mom said, some brands are better than others. Anything that the instructions can't tell you, Google (or Bing if you prefer) and/or asking your mom/grandma/aunt etc., all are good sources for clarification. My mom was great about knowing some tips and tricks that the pattern didn't share.

What the pattern doesn't tell you is this: you will waste a lot of thread! Between the ends that you trim each time you start or stop sewing, the stitches that you have to rip out, or the basting stitches that you sew in to make a gather and then rip out... you waste a lot of thread!

This was just one night's worth.. not even half of it!

Step Twelve: Wash and press the finished product!

Mine

Blake's

Add some accessories and voila!

And, because it doesn't deserve it's own post... here are some pictures of the weekend.

The accommodations. The building is a three or four car
garage with a developing apartment. The people
that own it add a little more to it each year.
This year they added a kitchen and a shower - YEAH!

Tent city - with view of the water

Down on the beach
(a pretty good hike down a steep hill,
and pretty cold water)!

My pirate husband

Lots of pirate costumes!
I was glad I made ours, it was *somewhat*
cheaper, and saved us from having the
same outfits as the other guests. There were
a surprising number of duplicates!