Thread: Making Pirate Shirts

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I just posted some pictures of last year's set up and it reminded me to share this way I like to make Pirate shirts for skeletons.

Basically you purchase or find some very thin linen material. Cut rectangle shapes out of the cloth. make sure that the cloth you use is a sort that will want to unravel at the edges. In the end it makes the material look more worn out.



Fold it in half to paint. The dotted line is where you would cut out the hole in the center for the skeleton head to poke through.



Use cardboard strips as guides for the stripes you plan to paint on the cloth. Keep the edges of the cardboard pretty straight here and make sure your cloth is lying flat. You want a fairly crisp line without over spray.



Use some cheap very bright spray paint to apply enough paint to make a clear stripe. Do not over do it here as the paint will make the cloth hard if you put too much on at a time. Several thinner coats makes the cloth look better.



Do both sides, making sure to let the first side dry before turning the cloth over. You want to avoid smears. Also, I might note that after each stripe has been painted, you might want to wipe off the excess spray paint on the cardboard guides as the paint will want to wick right into the cloth if is manages to touch it during subsequent spraying. (Yes I know my red stripes look blue on this cloth - it was the evil paint I used)



Now use a razor blade to sort of shred the cloth at the opposite ends of where the skull head will poke through. Make sure your shredding is in an up and down fashion as this ends up looking better than side to side shreds. Honestly, you cannot over do it here. Shred the heck out of it. After you have shredded the cloth, place it in a washing mashing for about 4 minutes with no soap. Put the cloth right into the dryer on the highest heat possible and let it dry completely. The high heat will fluff the edges making the razor cuts look old. Once it is done go rub it around in some damp dirt for a bit and shake off the excess.

Throw it over a skeleton you have and you now have a dead Pirate. Arrrgh Matey! On some of mine, i even used black material to make rotten vests to throw over the white shirts. Hot glued some buttons to them as well. The hats were done the same way from store bought cheapy pirate hats.





Enjoy!
JSM

Nice little tutorial

They look great

Thanks,