Will Turner

Character: Will Turner
From: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Made: 2003

During my sixth viewing of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, it occurred to me that my friend Dan would really make an excellent Will Turner-- he was tall, had the right build, and his hair was quite long as the result of a bet with a co-worker. One day in September 2003, while we were over at his house, I floated the idea of his dressing as Will for Halloween. He wasn't opposed, so I dove right in, and when I presented him with the costume in late October, he liked it so much he wore it home, and then wore it to work on Halloween!

This costume actually does double duty-- with the addition of different pants, and the removal of the stockings and shoes, it becomes a passable hobbit outfit.

Halloween 2003

Trying on the completed costume, October 2003

As a hobbit, headed to Trilogy Tuesday, December 2003
(socks and shoes because it was cold!)

Construction

This one came mostly from McCall's 2258, a generic Revolutionary-War-type pattern.

Shirt 

The shirt is made of the heavier cotton gauze from Dharma Trading. It's yummy and comfy and drapey and wonderful. The only alteration I made to the pattern was to make the sleeves smaller around, not quite so billowy.

Vest 

I made the lining and back of the vest from unbleached muslin, and the front from a loose-weave brown wool that had been sitting in a box in my grandmother's attic for many years. It would have been the perfect fabric for a Jedi cloak, had there been a few more yards of it. I didn't want to make myself crazy looking for the fabric that's in the actual vest, since this costume was never intended to be 100% accurate, so I just used what I had lying around in my costume closet. Again, I altered the pattern only slightly, to lengthen the vest, square off the edges, and reshape the welts.

Pants 

The pants are pretty much straight from the pattern, except I took out the darts at the waist. The pants are made from a different piece of brown wool from my grandmother's attic (this one with a number of moth-holes, so I had to lay my pattern pieces carefully!) and flatlined with brown lining fabric from Joann. There is elastic at the back of both the waist and the knee, but again, it's not intended to be accurate.

Other Stuff 

Dan came up with the sword, stockings, and belt himself. The shoes are his regular dress shoes. And the hair is his own.