Alright, first a disclaimer. I know most folks here are sticklers for accuracy, and I am all for that. A screen-accurate prop or costume is always impressive to behold, and makes you feel more immersed in the hobby. I am, needless to say, incredibly jealous of all you accurate-stuff-owning folks out there. 
Unfortunately, that doesn't work for all of us. As much as I would love to get in touch with SithCamaro and other costuming expects to get the clothing and beef up the accessories with the MR stuff, I just haven't got the cash to toss around. So, I plan to do the next best thing, which is something I've been doing with Hallowe'en costumes for years: look around for everyday/cheap things that look really darn close. The Salvation Army store is typically my best friend come All Hallow's Eve.
Of course, since this outfit is a bit more complex than Raoul Duke's aloha shirt, bucket hat, and cigarette holder combo, I'm starting this project many months early in hopes of putting together a more-than-reasonable facsimile by the time October rolls around. I would like to give thanks and credit to the incomparable SithCamaro, both for the references provided by his costume and the tips that he gave me in an e-mail (and, if I am lucky, may continue to give me should I have other questions ). Also, if any of you folks have opinions, suggestions, hints, tricks, what have you - I would really appreciate it. Be honest, please...I've never done a costume of this caliber before, and criticism couldn't hurt (despite my humble supplies).
UPDATES:
2-11 - Updated glove
2-14 - Updated jewelry, headgear
2-27 - Updated headgear, glove, breeches, accessories, and frock coat
3-5 - First pictures of me in costume.
Here are a couple of pictures of me wearing the costume - or what I've got of it at this point, at least. Since these pictures I've rather heavily altered the shirt (which I will post pictures of soon) and gotten a haircut, so I might not be able to model the headgear again until I get a wig.
I'm not nearly satisfied with this yet, but I think it's reached a point where any layperson who sees me will know who I'm supposed to be, which is definitely a milestone.
HEADGEAR:
I've got a screen-accurate bandanna from a certain very helpful Mr. Magnoli. I think you all know what it looks like, so I won't clog this up with any more pictures than necessary.
Here is a set of bead dangles, coins, and marlinspike that I ordered from a very helpful eBayer:
The dangle on the lower-right side was originally on a very unnatural-feeling processed "leather" cord, but I transferred the beads onto a strip of leather from my scrap bag. I think it looks much more convincing now, even if it's not perfectly accurate.
I still need a wig.
BELTS:
Throughout the series, Sparrow has several different belts that I am aware of - three different buckles on his normal waist belts, and two different buckles on the baldric. I've seen castings that look awfully close to all five of these little fellas, but I decided to snoop around on my own before committing to something like that. I was at Meijer the other day and I saw a wall-socket cover with some ornate, flowery designs on it and I thought "Hmm...for $5 it's a steal, and it already has two holes in it." So I picked it up, brought it home, and threaded a belt through it, and I gotta say - from a distance, it fits the bill. It doesn't resemble a specific belt of his, simply the style.
It's pre-aged, but not very well; I may want to refinish it.
SASH:
Also wrapped around Sparrow's waist is a long, red-and-white striped, fraying sash. I made my own by finding a long-sleeve button-down shirt at the Salvation Army store - it's got a good varied stripe pattern, and a fairly light and flowy material - removing all the hems, and sowing all the pieces together stripe-to-stripe. It's between 9 and 10 feet long, and between 12 and 15 inches wide.
I am quite happy with how it turned out (someday I'll show you the whole, unrolled sash), but I would like to mess with it a bit to look more frayed and weatherbeaten.
WAISTCOAT:
Another simple S.A. find. I know it's not nearly long enough, but they don't make waistcoats that long anymore, and I AM trying to do this on a budget after all. It appears to be fairly close to the original color, and the material on the front has a satisfying roughness to it.
I plan to toss this waistcoat and make another totally new one - this is just a temporary replacement.
BREECHES:
Another S.A. find. I cut off the legs a few inches below the knee and hemmed them, then turned one of the cut-off legs to make the flap that covers the fly. It's secured with Velcro right now, since I didn't want to bother making functional buttonholes. I still have to add buttons to the flap and to the legs - maybe do the hem-buckle, too.
GLOVE:
By looking at the general design of some more "professional" Sparrow gloves online, and adjusting it to fit my own hand well, I made a paper mockup. I went to the Michael's craft store and picked up an eight-dollar bag of leather scraps - one of them was big enough and similar enough in color to make this puppy:
It's not just suede, that's full-grain leather - grain side facing out, suede side touching my palm. I poked holes through the leather with a knife, then just stuck a regular needle through it, using doubled-up extra-heavy thread of course. Then I applied brown shoe polish and a "leather finisher" to the palm to make it closer in color to the strap and to give it the appearance of age.
I also found at the Salvation Army store the perfect bargain fabric for the wrist wrap that goes with the glove:
JEWELRY/ACCESSORIES:
I've bought the MR Aztec coin - may apply some kind of wash to make it look a little more antiquey and bring out the details. I'm still looking on eBay for rings, but I bought the $8 children's Jack Sparrow Gear set, which came with some decent rings - as well as a not-too-shabby compass replica.
I also bought this at a local new-age shop:
I believe it's Quan-Yin (not sure about that spelling, I've seen it at least three different ways), and while I know she's nowhere near screen-accurate, I thought she would make a reasonable replacement for the red mermaid fertility charm that Jack hangs from his belt. Working on finding a vertebrae and chicken claw to go next to it.
FROCK COAT:
Bought the Simplicity pattern, and some $4-per-yard fabric that, while not perfect, has a good roughness and the proper brownish-bluish tint. My dorm neighbor is a renaissance clothing tailor, so hopefully he'll be able to whip up something good for me.
Thanks for looking, everybody - I hope you find this whole enterprise interesting, albeit a bit below your usual skill level. I'll be updating this fairly regularly as I continue to find the proper accouterments to make this thing a reality. Once again, comments and criticism are encouraged.
Unfortunately, that doesn't work for all of us. As much as I would love to get in touch with SithCamaro and other costuming expects to get the clothing and beef up the accessories with the MR stuff, I just haven't got the cash to toss around. So, I plan to do the next best thing, which is something I've been doing with Hallowe'en costumes for years: look around for everyday/cheap things that look really darn close. The Salvation Army store is typically my best friend come All Hallow's Eve.
Of course, since this outfit is a bit more complex than Raoul Duke's aloha shirt, bucket hat, and cigarette holder combo, I'm starting this project many months early in hopes of putting together a more-than-reasonable facsimile by the time October rolls around. I would like to give thanks and credit to the incomparable SithCamaro, both for the references provided by his costume and the tips that he gave me in an e-mail (and, if I am lucky, may continue to give me should I have other questions
). Also, if any of you folks have opinions, suggestions, hints, tricks, what have you - I would really appreciate it. Be honest, please...I've never done a costume of this caliber before, and criticism couldn't hurt (despite my humble supplies).UPDATES:
2-11 - Updated glove
2-14 - Updated jewelry, headgear
2-27 - Updated headgear, glove, breeches, accessories, and frock coat
3-5 - First pictures of me in costume.
Here are a couple of pictures of me wearing the costume - or what I've got of it at this point, at least. Since these pictures I've rather heavily altered the shirt (which I will post pictures of soon) and gotten a haircut, so I might not be able to model the headgear again until I get a wig.
I'm not nearly satisfied with this yet, but I think it's reached a point where any layperson who sees me will know who I'm supposed to be, which is definitely a milestone.
HEADGEAR:
I've got a screen-accurate bandanna from a certain very helpful Mr. Magnoli. I think you all know what it looks like, so I won't clog this up with any more pictures than necessary.
Here is a set of bead dangles, coins, and marlinspike that I ordered from a very helpful eBayer:
The dangle on the lower-right side was originally on a very unnatural-feeling processed "leather" cord, but I transferred the beads onto a strip of leather from my scrap bag. I think it looks much more convincing now, even if it's not perfectly accurate.
I still need a wig.
BELTS:
Throughout the series, Sparrow has several different belts that I am aware of - three different buckles on his normal waist belts, and two different buckles on the baldric. I've seen castings that look awfully close to all five of these little fellas, but I decided to snoop around on my own before committing to something like that. I was at Meijer the other day and I saw a wall-socket cover with some ornate, flowery designs on it and I thought "Hmm...for $5 it's a steal, and it already has two holes in it." So I picked it up, brought it home, and threaded a belt through it, and I gotta say - from a distance, it fits the bill. It doesn't resemble a specific belt of his, simply the style.
It's pre-aged, but not very well; I may want to refinish it.
SASH:
Also wrapped around Sparrow's waist is a long, red-and-white striped, fraying sash. I made my own by finding a long-sleeve button-down shirt at the Salvation Army store - it's got a good varied stripe pattern, and a fairly light and flowy material - removing all the hems, and sowing all the pieces together stripe-to-stripe. It's between 9 and 10 feet long, and between 12 and 15 inches wide.
I am quite happy with how it turned out (someday I'll show you the whole, unrolled sash), but I would like to mess with it a bit to look more frayed and weatherbeaten.
WAISTCOAT:
Another simple S.A. find. I know it's not nearly long enough, but they don't make waistcoats that long anymore, and I AM trying to do this on a budget after all. It appears to be fairly close to the original color, and the material on the front has a satisfying roughness to it.
I plan to toss this waistcoat and make another totally new one - this is just a temporary replacement.
BREECHES:
Another S.A. find. I cut off the legs a few inches below the knee and hemmed them, then turned one of the cut-off legs to make the flap that covers the fly. It's secured with Velcro right now, since I didn't want to bother making functional buttonholes. I still have to add buttons to the flap and to the legs - maybe do the hem-buckle, too.
GLOVE:
By looking at the general design of some more "professional" Sparrow gloves online, and adjusting it to fit my own hand well, I made a paper mockup. I went to the Michael's craft store and picked up an eight-dollar bag of leather scraps - one of them was big enough and similar enough in color to make this puppy:
It's not just suede, that's full-grain leather - grain side facing out, suede side touching my palm. I poked holes through the leather with a knife, then just stuck a regular needle through it, using doubled-up extra-heavy thread of course. Then I applied brown shoe polish and a "leather finisher" to the palm to make it closer in color to the strap and to give it the appearance of age.
I also found at the Salvation Army store the perfect bargain fabric for the wrist wrap that goes with the glove:
JEWELRY/ACCESSORIES:
I've bought the MR Aztec coin - may apply some kind of wash to make it look a little more antiquey and bring out the details. I'm still looking on eBay for rings, but I bought the $8 children's Jack Sparrow Gear set, which came with some decent rings - as well as a not-too-shabby compass replica.
I also bought this at a local new-age shop:
I believe it's Quan-Yin (not sure about that spelling, I've seen it at least three different ways), and while I know she's nowhere near screen-accurate, I thought she would make a reasonable replacement for the red mermaid fertility charm that Jack hangs from his belt. Working on finding a vertebrae and chicken claw to go next to it.
FROCK COAT:
Bought the Simplicity pattern, and some $4-per-yard fabric that, while not perfect, has a good roughness and the proper brownish-bluish tint. My dorm neighbor is a renaissance clothing tailor, so hopefully he'll be able to whip up something good for me.
Thanks for looking, everybody - I hope you find this whole enterprise interesting, albeit a bit below your usual skill level. I'll be updating this fairly regularly as I continue to find the proper accouterments to make this thing a reality. Once again, comments and criticism are encouraged.
