So last week was pirate week at Li’l Bro’s preschool, culminating in a pirate day dress up day on Friday.

Of course, I was not even remotely perturbed when Li’l Bro asked me to make him a pirate costume. We grabbed a little felt to make the pirate vest. I love felt because it’s inexpensive and easy to work with.

Grab a piece of felt about as long as you want the finished vest to be and 2x as wide as you want it. [You can lay down an existing shirt or jacket  on top of the felt to eyeball the width you want.] Fold the felt in half.

Then fold it in half again.

You will end up with a folded piece of felt four layers thick.

Then, laying a folded shirt on top of the felt as a pattern, cut the neck and arm holes. Just fold the arms back out of the way and cut a slight curve where the neck is.

Make sure that the arm holes are cut on the double-folded side.

You’ll end up with something like this.

Open out the folded felt, and you should have something like this. Trim off what will be the front opening of the vest (top right & left). Have your child try on the vest and pin the shoulder pieces together (the yellow x’s go together and the blue x’s go together). [The shoulder felt with overlap unevenly/at an angle because your shoulders are slanted from neck to arm, not perfectly square.]

For each shoulder, sew straight across the two shoulder pieces to join them together.

For a well-worn piratey look, cut slits and pieces out of the bottom of the vest.

Then, just add a long piece of contrasting fabric for a sash, and voila! [This sash is a 1/4-yard piece of solid black polyester fabric.]

Then, all that’s left is to work on your pirate-speak: Avast, me hearties! Swab this deck, y’scurvy rats! Hoist the mainsail, y’bilgerats, or yer’ll be walkin’ the plank!

Tomorrow, I’ll share how to make these super-simple pirate pants, wheeeeee! So, any other easy DIY costumes you want me to tackle! Do tell!