So, it might be noted that I love pirate costumes and stuff! So this is an ever ongoing costume for me. Here’s an ever growing source of some supplies and inspiration.
Pistols-I don't want a cheap plastic one as I always break them...
Sash-Need a sash for your waist if you're going to be a pirate.
Shirt-I was using a random coconut shirt that I'd picked up on my travels but it wasn't quite right. I've now switched to using a 'viking' shirt from Aliexpress...
Sword-Some of these aren't available any more but I couldn't afford to spend £400 on a really nice cutlass. I did however stumble on a ceremonial sabre in a second hand shop for £30.
Awesome buckleNeck blingBronze bird skullSee no evil carved tooth (fake plastic thing from a charity shop)
A handful of extras – lots of wrist bling, a pocket watch (not entirely in keeping with the time but looks cool), a couple of small chests and a couple of tankards.
Costume So Far 2
This is the costume now with the new shirt, new jacket, axe holder but not yet done the sword frog to fit that to the belt.
Star Wars costume required for a party, I’ve previously done the Princess Leia (buns and white) and Yoda costumes so decided to go with the Sith costume. It’ll look good with a fire sword or my glow staffs.
The top I made from an oversized black shirt that I was gifted. I cut off the collar and and sleeves and hemmed the edges with some red biased binding.
Robe
I ended up just buying a robe from from jedi-robe.com, it was expensive but I was running out of time. Its thinner than I would have made for myself but I’m pleased with the shape and size of the hood
Lightsaber
The lightsaber is a Concentrate C4 Glow staff. At some point I’d like to upgrade this to a contact saber from FlowToys – https://flowtoys.com/day-contact-saber. They aren’t a great replica of a lightsaber but I do circus tricks and they are great for that. There is also a lot of wobble in the Concentrate staffs and that’s not great for contact staff moves.
Review
Pretty pleased with the results overall although buying the jedi robe was expensive the rest of it I had lying around. At some point I may come back and upgrade this. It definitely needs a better belt.
This is an idea I’ve had floating around for a while, since I saw you could get a gas mask for about £15! The model in the image above is an Eastern European M10 (I think). Basically I want it to breathe smoke and light up!
The one above is a polish MP4 about £12 inc delivery from Ebay.
After watching the video below, I’m slightly leaning towards the M10 (or a Bulgarian PDE10 but that’s heavy) purely for appearance. Now to see if I can get one in grey or black!
Breathing Smoke
A few options on the breathing smoke…
A Smoke Detector Tester can with a motor trigger. This is basically a spray can full of fake smoke that is used to test smoke alarms
I would like to mount some sort of low powered (none blinding!) laser pointer if possible but my main concer is getting some RGB LED’s mounted to illuminate the smoke and possibly obscure the eyes!
A lot of the masks come with spare lenses for the eyes so it would be good to have a tinted set for daytime ware.
This was a really basic dirty make… I don’t do sewing! Buy a couple of meters of hairy fabric, the longer the hair the better. Lie down on it and fold it over your legs… cut to length of hip to floor + 10cm. wrap around your waist with 10cm extra for luck. The extra 10cm length is to roll over for a draw string.
Spread the fabric out again and lie on it in the middle, you should have enough to fold over each leg and meet in the middle. You will need to cut a slit in the bottom layer and the seams are then going to come on the inside of each leg and up the crotch! I hand stitched this all to avoid catching the hair and so the seam vanishes into all the fluff!
Horns
This is only version 1 but they came out looking really well so have never got round to making another version. I should as they are really heavy and uncomfortable!
The are just made out of polymer clay! Rolled into a cone, twisted into a spiral and scored with a chopstick. Before I cooked them in the oven I pushed a chopstick through the base of each one so a bit of string holds them to my head. Having fluffy hair means it really easy to hide the string. I did no colouring! The clay colour was the same as you can see on the base and the gradually blackened tips come from me cooking them in the oven for too long! Looks good though.
It would have been better if I used air dry clay as it is a lot lighter or even better if I cut them out of foam and covered them in Waterproof PVA and spray paint!
Possibly the coolest genre of costume that is going and the new film with Tom Hardy is no exception.
Tom Hardy as Mad Max in Fury Road
Some source films, I’ve picked these for the costuming not the quality of film:
Mad Max (all of them!)
Doomsday
Resident Evil
Dredd
A boy and his Dog
The Postman
Escape from New York
Escape from LA
There are plenty of lists of post apocalypse films on IMDB but some of them have a funny idea what qualifies and some have bloody awful taste! First list looks good though!
I’ll add images up here as I find them but basically its all about the adornments! Get a solid base outfit then add multiple layers, extra kit (binoculars, torches, food packs…) then add plenty of affectations (feathers, chains, studs, chainmail…). One final thing to remember is the distressed look, the costume should be beaten up not freshly laundered!
As an old rocker I always preferred East German Paratrooper boots, they were chunkier!
Then you need to beat the crap out of them… see the notes on distressing them below. The best way I heard of doing them was to stuff them with paper and throw them in a mini cement mixer let them tumble round with the left over cement to scuff them up and dirty them!
Ohhhhh may have found a better Gas Mask than an M10… a PC50. An M10 is about £15 though and comes with a drinking straw, so you can drink your beer without removing your costume!
You’ve gone through the apocalypse… there is no laundry service. Some ideas I need to go over yet, the first one looks good, haven’t watched the videos yet.
Axe - Boarding axe for all your boarding needs.
Beads - Lots of beads
Belts…. lots of belts! - The more the merrier.
Boots - Every good pirate needs some boots.
Hat - I need a tricorn hat!
Jacket - The new jacket is cool and a big step up. 
Pistols - I don't want a cheap plastic one as I always break them...
Sash - Need a sash for your waist if you're going to be a pirate.
Shirt - I was using a random coconut shirt that I'd picked up on my travels but it wasn't quite right. I've now switched to using a 'viking' shirt from Aliexpress...
Sword - Some of these aren't available any more but I couldn't afford to spend £400 on a really nice cutlass. I did however stumble on a ceremonial sabre in a second hand shop for £30. 
