Note/Disclaimer: This is another repost of an old Halloween costume.   This was originally posted in 2013, a year after I was supposed to actually use this costume, but because of Hurricane Sandy, work was cancelled on Halloween and this costume never saw the light of day. However, the post was written as though it did.

It’s that time of year again, and I’m starting to put together my Homemade Halloween post. This year, the costume needed to be bigger and even more awesome than the Barbie and Ken costume, because we were defending a title. We won Most Creative last year and fully intended to take home the prize again (I want my $10 worth of free coffee, dammit!).

In any case, here’s another step by step look into the making of the pirate snow globe costume. Initially it was my sister’s idea, off the top of her head without seeing any such costume before. So I looked into it and found some basis for comparison, but then of course set out to do it my way.

Step One: Sketching and Planning

Obviously before you do anything of this nature, having a basic plan is the way to go. We decided to be pirates in the snow globe, and just went from there. I looked up pirate ship snow globes and made my own version.

Step Two: Obtain Supplies

I was fortunate enough to get the perfect size foam blocks for this from a couch my mom was throwing out and have been saving them since the summer. So all I really needed after that was the acetate for the globe, craft foam and lots and lots of glue. One trip to the craft store was enough.

Step Three: The Pirate Outfit

Of course, I needed a pirate outfit to go with my snow globe. It took a while to pick one, but I finally settled on this Simplicity pattern. A trip to Mood took care of the fabric and I set to work (I’ll be doing a separate post on the making of the pirate outfit, most likely). I decided against a dress, since that was more pirate wench than first mate.

Step Four: Cutting the Template

Then I had to cut a template before cutting the acetate. I followed the basic plan outlined in this tutorial (I used this guy’s project as a jumping off point and then kind of made up my own plan as I went along, using this for guidance).

My template was heavyweight bulletin board paper and I marked it and cut it the best I could. It was horrificly floppy and hard to see how it would take shape in the final version, but it was a decent jumping off point.

Step Five: Cutting the Letters

Then it was on to the foam pieces. I wanted to cut the letters early and I decided to do it freehand. The globes come from Pirate’s Cove, which was the first pirate-themed name I thought of.

Step Six: Assembly (and Problem Solving)

We decided to just hammer out the costume in one afternoon, and so we began with the plastic. Unfortunately the first attempt with the plastic was an utter disaster, but being problem solvers, we managed to come up with a new plan that worked perfectly.

Above you see the two bases, with the holes cut out in the centers. They are stacked on top of each other to make it easier to shape the plastic around them. The knitting needles are for holding the plastic up.

A successful formation of the plastic! By the time we got to the second one, they had been perfected.

Step Seven: The Little Details

And then the pictures were halted for a bit, so we’ll skip a few steps. It was time to prepare the foam for the sides of the ship. They represented the wood beams that an old pirate ship would be made of, and the ocean at the bottom of the ship.

The letters were added to the side:

And that’s sadly where this tale ends. Though the bases still exist, fully put together as stated above, the plastic is long gone, and the snow attachments (invisible thread with styrofoam) never happened. There was a whole pirate costume I made for myself and never wore (though it’s still in my closet!).