My youngest daughter announced that she’d decided she wanted to be a pirate with her friends for Halloween and I couldn’t be happier. It also happened to coordinate perfectly with the Peony’s tester call for Character Week (an annual tradition that works well timing-wise since Halloween/trick or treat isn’t such a big thing in Australia from my understanding, but we still get the pattern sales).
We did the pirate thing years ago when my oldest was in preschool. Even my husband, who must be Australian at heart because he doesn’t dress up either, was willing to get in on it (just kidding—he’s 6’10” and doesn’t need costumes to draw extra attention to himself and also, they don’t fit him). Of course this meant I had to make him a custom ruffly shirt. It was totally worth it because we looked amazing of course.
Since that was all before Juliet was born, I was happy to get to create a pirate costume for her. She wanted me to also make costumes for all of her neighborhood friends, but since I have a full-time job, I compromised and made one for her bestie Scarlett instead
For Juliet, I knew I wanted to make a dress. I chose the Jasmine dress. This is the first Peony pattern I bought but I’ve still only used it to make costumes. I used a single layer gauze from Joann for the ruffle, sleeves, and skirt. I cut the sleeves about 2.5 inches longer than the pattern to add a ruffle, and make a casing from single bias tape to feed the elastic through. I cut the simple rectangle skirt a few inches longer than the pattern and added a few vertical gathers along the hem. Juliet was adamant that the bodice be made of faux leather. I was a little worried about that, but it turned out it wasn’t hard to work with. I blocked the bodice and added grommets and a suede lace to give it a corset look. To keep the straps from being too bulky, I cut them in two pieces rather than folding them and cut the lining from cotton woven rather than the faux leather. The front and back bodice is also lined in cotton woven. The top skirt is a square circle skirt in crushed velvet layered over the gathered skirt before attaching to the bodice. Her headscarf is just a triangular scrap of the velvet.
For Scarlett’s costume, I wanted a different look and she was happy to not wear I dress. I chose the Peach leggings in plain black to start (sure she could have worn her own leggings but who doesn’t love leggings custom made for them?). For the top, I used the Wattle bodice with the Pepper skirt, since I wanted something less full. After attaching it, I hacked it up to give it a rough asymmetric look. The vest…I used the Lantana bodice as my starting point but really any bodice would do. I sized up a couple of sizes and then traced and cut until I got a shape I liked. I used crushed stretch velvet again (stabilized with fusible interfacing) and lined with cotton woven. I basted both layers together then used gold double fold bias tape to finish the edges and trim it. I used magnetic sew-on purse/bag buttons with skull beads glued on for embellishment, and chains to attach them (because they’re magnetic, it’s easy to get in and out of but strong enough hold not to fall off). Like any good pirate, Scarlett provided her own hat. 
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