This is my Captain Jack Sparrow costume. And of course, when it comes to costumes, especially Johnny Depp characters, I’m all for it. But underneath it all, I do this for the kids. When I walked in the kids's Halloween party all dressed up, seeing the kids laughing and smiling made it all worthwhile.

I actually considered trying out for Disney World/Land, because they had open auditions for characters that walk around the theme park. I would totally do it; I mean you get paid for walking around as your favorite character and making kids smile, what’s better? But of course, I need to finish college first.

So, onto my costume…

This one took about a month to make. I watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie about a million times for references and to study Johnny Depp’s acting. I also used a bunch of screen shots and publicity photos.

One of my main reference photos:

[link]

The clothing is made up of a white pirate shirt that I modified and combined with a regular white collared shirt. The vest is an old corduroy shirt, which I chopped the sleeves off of. The pants were some old blue khakis that my sister found and didn’t want. So I was obliged to take them off her hands and make them nice and dirty, as I did the rest of the clothing. I bought boots online, but they were too dark to match Jack Sparrow’s boots, so I added some light brown paint to give them that suede look.

I made the belt from a piece of leatherette, and painted it brown. I found the belt buckle at the Salvation Army, but it was too perfect to pass up. So I just added a bit of paint to make it look dirty. The white sash underneath the belt was from a bed sheet that I striped with a red Sharpie marker and stained with coffee (still smells to this day). I tore that all up to make it look nice and worn.

The bandage around my left hand was simply part of that same bed sheet which I also stained. On the other hand, I made that sort of ‘half glove’ that Jack wears, out of fabric that I painted brown. Around the wrist went a strip of black cloth, which I attached it to that ‘half glove.’ On the same hand I had Jack Sparrow’s infamous green stoned ring (which I found at the store and could not pass up). If I knew how to do metal work or jewelry making, I would have attempted to create it, but I had no problem forking over the fifteen dollars for the ring.

The bandana was made out of this fabric, which I found to already have a printed texture on it. So that added to the aged effect I enhanced later on. I attached the beads that hang over the forehead to the bandana.

Speaking of beads, boy oh boy, did I love those beads. To make the beaded hair, I used anything and everything I could find. I painted beads till the cows came home. The wig was a bit teased up, cut and braided in some places. I sprayed it brown very slightly. The ‘bone’ in the hair is actually a paintbrush handle.

Ah, and we have the lovely beard extensions. My facial hair was pretty long, so I could attach these extensions that I made out of discarded parts of my wig, directly to my beard with some elastics. It wasn’t the most comforting of situations, but there’s no beauty without pain. I also dyed my facial hair blackish-brown for this (my hair is red). I shaved my beard just like Jack’s, and even shaved a little hole in the facial hair on one side of my jaw to add that little ‘bloody scar’ thing that he had.

As for my makeup, I put a bronzer on my face, neck and hands to give that dirty-tan look. I dirtied up my fingernails as well with eyeliner and face paint. And of course, the eyeliner, oh the eyeliner. Not to mention, I used some of my sister's 'braces wax' to keep tin foil stuck on my teeth to emulate fake silver teeth.

I love this costume, and so did all of the children. Not to mention the parents and teachers were going crazy for it as well. It’s actually funny when a child, who I’ve been working with for four years, doesn’t even recognize me under the costume.