Tis the Season to dress like a Pirate and go to Renaissance Fairs!

Who out there doesn’t enjoy dressing as a pirate?  Even better going to the Renaissance Fair and having Medieval meats.   Check out the video :) The Georgia Festival is a great one.  Does anyone know of any other good ones?

We do not have these here, but I wish we did. In Machias they do have Pirate Days, but sadly it is a long ways away, and I have never been.

My wife and I enjoy doing silly photo shoots, though I cannot explain why exactly. What we have found is, in making up the costumes and gathering the props is the almost the best part; the photos afterwards just being proof as to what fun we had. We have done several, from Little Red Ridinghood to Trash the Dress, and a many more in between.

One definitely on the horizon is a photoshoot of us as Robinhood and Maid Marian, Bonnie and Clyde, and my wife as a Mermaid (we live along the coast).

This is us as Little Red Ridinghood with me being the Logger that saves the damsel in distress. Sadly I lacked a Big Bad Wolf costume!

Nice Travis, but with that look the woodsman is giving Red, she might have been safer with the wolf...lol

No Pirate souls?   Pastafarians?  Here are some pics from last year’s Renaissance Festival in Colorado.  It had its good points but the jousting was too much talk not enough fighting...surely I am not the only Pirate out there...

We finally made it to our first Medieval Faire this winter. Yes, winter. Our local SCA has their fair in January. We weren't able to stay long, as it was time for everyone's nap, but we really had a blast with what we could see--I really hope we can stay longer and see more next year!

Another really cool thing to do--if one is in the greater Seattle area--is to visit Camlann Medieval Village (http://camlann.org). We've gone twice now, and it's always been wonderful and educational. Unlike many Faires, Camlann is set up to be a historical village in England in 1376. It's a step back in time. The "villagers" are all dressed in historic attire, and are working their trades as they would have in 1376. There's a blacksmith, a carpenter, a potter, a lister (she dyes wool and fabric), some sheep, tournaments, a "magician," and a candlemaker (from what I recall off the top of my head). I had my throat "impaled" by the magician, LOL! They also have an inn that sells authentic medieval fair, cooked over an open hearth. It's seriously cool, and really educational. I hope to go back again this year!

Here's some pictures from their website:

I love the pirate life! As costumes go, it's basically historical Mad Max, you can justify almost anything!
I like a variety of knives, hung from a leather broadbelt.
I really could use a boarding axe as well,or maybe a pike...

I'm sad to say I can't wear my boots anymore, the heels are just too much.

Pirate music, well let's just say anything that features according is liable to be great!

Lastly, pirate crews where notorious for ignoring convention, a thumb in the eye of every smuck who insists that women can't fight and minorities should be invisible.

Rob Griffin wrote:Nice Travis, but with that look the woodsman is giving Red, she might have been safer with the wolf...lol

Well, Little Red later on a had a look all her own (she realized just before I took the photo what the camera angle would be, and moved her flowers just in time, which is why Little Red is smirking as she is).

What day is "Talk Like A Pirate Day"? I know there is one, one day per year?

Of course being from Maine and along the coast, we had our share of pirates here, and few people know that they were one of the first Democracies out there. Having come from many naval vessels where Captains could be unusually cruel and harsh, they were not about to be ruled by another harsh pirate captain. That Pirate Captain was elected, and could be unelected...

And there were many women pirates.

Too funny Travis!

When is it appropriate to dress like a Pirate you ask?
1. Renaissance Fairs
2. Halloween
3. Talk like Pirate day, September 19 this year
4. Any costume party
5. When you need to spice it up (see Travis’s first post if you are confused) lol
6. Political rally’s
7. COFSM services
8. Saint patty’s day
9. Wednesday’s

Note cutless (peace tied) and cat-o- nine tails.  I did buy a nice belt bag at festival to carry my stuff, as I was tired of stuffing everything in my boots.  You know a real pirate when you pull a wad of beef jerky (see video, and it was sort of wrapped in parchment paper) out of your boot and offer it to them and they eat it.

Halloween is a great day to dress like a Pirate! My son wanted to be a pirate for Halloween this year. He adamantly refused to wear a hat, so we grabbed an old scarf to tie around his head, and got a pillowcase at the thrift store to cut into a scarf/belt for around his waist.It's definitely not the most accurate of pirate attire (especially not the duck boots!) but it sure was fun for him!

The scarf I have on my shoulders is a shemaugh/keffiyeh that I can wrap up ala “Black Sails “ when I need to go into pirate assassin mode...and when it is not 100 degrees and 90% humidity...

And I think those are great boots...More pics from Colorado festival....that is actual living fountain and new twist on playing with knives...

Such an awesome thread and some rather dapper photos! Since it tis the season, I dredged up an old photo.

When you have a dog bred to pull a milk cart and your kid wants to be a pirate for Halloween - the cart becomes a pirate ship!!


(Maybe not the best pic, but you get the idea. This is my sister, her son/my nephew, and their Bernese mountain dog some years back.)

I wish to join in on the not-the-best-picture brigade! Here I am with my two kids on Halloween. We were all pirates! I even made my son's hat out of wool felt. I figured if I was going to make it, I was going to make it durable and eco-friendly rather than just using cheep polyester fabric! The rest of our clothes were cobbled together from stuff we already had in the closet.

My husband was a pirate, too, but he's taking the picture, so you can't see him :D

I don't have a pirate outfit, but if I wear this, can I be kidnapped by the pirates!?
(Oh dear! Cthulhu ate my face!)


That's full laced up the back corset, with steel supports (I make corsets) and matching skirt, didn't have a good shirt to wear with it, oh well, and I do not have long curly reddish hair, I DO have a long curly reddish wig.
That was the first year we had moved to Missouri, mom was out of town, and my neighbors were entertained by me asking her to lace me into a corset, especially since they had never seen me in anything but grubby work clothes.
And if you recognize the outfit, PM me, I KNOW there have to be people local to me!

That's SO COOL that you can make corsets! I was thinking as I was cobbling together my costume, that I wished I had a corset to finish the look.

As for being captured by pirates, this family of pirates would capture you any day of the week!

I am really impressed as well Pearl. You not only make beautiful outfits, but just teh fact that in a time of need could clothe yourself has huge benefits.

I really wish my wife or I could sew. We have a few ideas for the many photo shoot Katie and I do, but often times we have to be really creative to make up the customes without sewing. We did one of Little Red Ridinghood, and if you look close, you can actually see where we attached the hood by way of slits and a ribbon.

We actually have a pattern for a Mermaid costume, and since we live along the coast, it would make for a wonderful photo shoot someday, but neither one of us can sew, so it has never been made. Kind of sad...

Travis Johnson wrote: just the fact that in a time of need could clothe yourself has huge benefits.

I sew quite a bit of my clothes, or modify things  I buy secondhand. Very few things don't get their warranties violated in my life. Glad you like the outfit :) The center bar of that corset (called the busk) is made out of a roofing tie! I don't do accurate period costuming :)

Howdy!

The idea of using a busk made out of a roofing tie is, for definitions of "historical", perfectly period.
(Official unofficial definition - Common to a style that might have been done if the proper, historically accurate versions had maybe had access to that thing.)

Or I hang around with too many creative costumers and cosplayers.
Or both. It doesn't *have* to be an either/or. It can be a both/and.

I know people who have used lumber strapping (both the metal and plastic) as boning and hoop skirt supports.

I also fully support dressing like a pirate whenever the mood strikes. Or because it's Tuesday.
Sorry to chime in so late on such an amazing thread as Promoting Friendly Piracy.

Rob Griffin wrote:Nice Travis, but with that look the woodsman is giving Red, she might have been safer with the wolf...lol

Red is giving that woodsman a look of her own! It means shut that camera off...NOW!

Rob Griffin wrote: Who out there doesn’t enjoy dressing as a pirate?  Even better going to the Renaissance Fair and having Medieval meats. The Georgia Festival is a great one.  Does anyone know of any other good ones?

When I was much younger, I would "dress up" and Be The Dryad You Want To See In The World. Or an elf. Or ... pseudo-peasant. Whatever. I was young and had a job there selling "Princely Potato Pieces".
TRF - The Texas Renaissance Festival is still a huge and wonderful place.

I have also enjoyed King Richard's Faire in Massachusetts. Met some great bards up that way.
The Ohio Renaissance Fair was pretty good, too. Ran into The Minstrels of Mayhem and a great lady who played hammered dulcimer. I have her CD, somewhere. Wish I could remember her name.

Lucky me, I have good friends who understand that sometimes, just because you have the outward appearance of a Middle Tudor Shopkeeper Matron, just means you have that much more belly to belly dance with.
I happily overlook their proclivity to dress up as an animated candelabra and a wooden mantel clock (although for TRF they will become other things/people. Their gender flipped Thor and Loki, including All The Scale Mail are very popular), and will dress up as whatever I'm feeling like *that* day and go to enjoy whatever they're deep frying this year.
(I have also hawked while doing the Playtron thing. For some reason my "Air on a Stick", to go along with everything else that the properly licensed vendors sell on a wooden skewer, just doesn't have much of a market.)  

I was in a position to try the Georgia one, but was unfortunately SCAdian at the time and dealing with the actually quite reasonable charges of treason against the crown as things were winding up to War. I had to do some serious groveling before people who were taking their pointy hats a little too seriously. But that's only my side of the story.