I did a Jack Sparrow costume a year and a half ago (feel free to check my gallery for it). And despite getting numerous compliments (a lot of them coming from fellow deviants on this site), I decided to remake the costume, this time as close to the real thing as possible. The old costume was acceptable, but I'm such a perfectionist that I can't be proud of what I see in the pictures from a year and a half ago. So none of what you see in this above image was used in my old costume.

(Also, I apologize for the quality of some of these photos used in my collage. They were taken with numerous friends' cameras at different distances, so they're no guarantee on great quality. But some of the above photos were too good (pose-wise) to pass up.)

Overview:

The only (online) store-bought things that were unaltered were the official replica rings, the one set of replica dangle beads that Jack wears on his bandanna, the replica bandanna itself, and the replica belt buckles. I tried to keep this list to a minimum, but hey, I'm working two jobs and time is tight. And if I had access to things like resin molds and if I knew how to make metal rings, I'd probably utilize those talents/opportunities. But honestly, nothing beats a legit replica.

Other than that, I made everything from scratch, or altered existing objects. For example, the compass, gun, and voodoo accessories (chicken foot, shrunken head, fertility charms, etc.) were originally toys that I soon puttied (to fill in cracks and screw holes), sanded down, repainted, and 'aged.'

The puffy pirate shirt was dyed from a white to an off-white/tan color, and 'dirtied up' with some charcoal. I made the vest from scratch, hand dyed the back of it, and sewed on roughly 10-15 buttons on it. The pants are just simple blue pants that I found and couldn't pass up because they fit so perfectly, color-wise especially. I also sewed a few buttons onto those.

My boots were very hard to recreate. I bought pirate boots that didn't quite fit Jack's style, so I covered them with a light tan suede. Probably the toughest part I encountered when creating this costume. But it was fun after they were covered, getting them 'dirty,' spray painting and rubbing charcoal all over them.

I printed the line pattern onto my sash at my work, using an HP flatbed printer. Sometimes being a graphic designer has its perks in the costume industry. I aged the sash greatly by rubbing scissors to tatter the edges and slightly dyed some areas.

The belts were hand made, and so were the animal pelts hanging over the side of them.

Simple bandage wrap on my left hand, brown 'half-glove' and tattered black cloth on my right hand and wrist.

The wig was tough, but very fun. All beads, except for the replica strand I mentioned above were repainted and arranged by me. Every bead strand is as close to Jack's costume as I could get. No BSing here. Don't forget about the classic bone hanging from the side. The wig is a mixture of two wigs actually, a normal black straight-haired wig (sprayed slightly brown) and a dread lock wig. Plenty of braids, dangles, beads, and wraps throughout the wig, as close as I could get to Jack's.

Makeup took a while. I had to apply bronzer to my arms, chest and face to give me that tanned, yet dirty pirate look. Speaking of dirty, I applied black makeup and/or smudged eyeliner on my hands and around my fingernails to look even dirtier. Let's not forget about the sparrow tattoo on my right arm (not seen here, but I do have pictures of it) that took a while to draw on. And last but not least...Eyeliner! And plenty of it!

Yes, that's my real facial hair (with the exception of the braid extensions) that I dyed black. I also dyed my hair dark brown. I'm originally a redhead, so I didn't want any red hairs sticking out of my black and brown wig. Yeah, kinda take it too seriously. I also shaved my chest, and boy, am I itchy. My gums kind of hurt too because I had both silver and gold teeth covering my real teeth.

Lastly, I sanded-up, sponge painted, and matte sprayed a wine bottle, that ultimately turned into my rum bottle for my Halloween party. Looked like I pulled the bottle right out of the sand.

Boy, that was long, but I think that covered the bases. Again, my main objective for this costume was to get as close to the screen-used costume as possible. Feel free to do any costume comparisons and see how close to the mark I am (not trying to sound braggy, it's just that I want to show how sickly obsessive I get at Halloween).

Any questions or comments feel free to write em down. Thanks for reading! Happy Halloween!