Death2009 on 16 March 2007
fishamaphone said:
OK, first you take the disk out of the box, then you measure it for size. Remember, all dimensions are important. Buy about two square feet of blue felt, and a square foot of red felt, some black felt, and some small buttons.
Cut the blue felt into the shape two coat sides that fit the dimensions you measured, and cut some trimmings from the red felt. Use your favorite type of glue to apply the red trimmings to the appropriate edges of the coat. Glue three small buttons onto the left side of the coat. Now cut another piece for the back of the coat.
The hat is a little more complicated. Cut a circle of felt that's about 15% larger than the head dimension you measured. Now cut a straight line from one of the edges to the exact center of your circle. Fold the circle over itself until you get a dome that fits your original head dimension, and cut off the excess felt. Glue the new dome so it doesn't fall apart. Now use your dome as a stencil to trace and then cut out a ring about 1/2 inch in width. You can eyeball this to figure out what looks right. Cut out the ring and snip an acute wedge out somewhere, so that you take more out of the outside edge than the inside edge. Glue the ring back together. It should now hold itself upwards. Cut some more trimming from the red felt and glue it around the outside edge of this ring. Glue the ring to the outside edge of your dome, so that you create a sort of "moat" between the dome and the ring. If you want to be fancy, put a skull design on the front of the hat.
Now is the easy part. Take the black felt and cut out a rough beard shape, and two eyes (be creative).
Now that you have all your pirate stuff, glue them onto your game disk, in the most appropriate way you can find. Some people like showing the art side of the disk on the face, some don't. It's up to you.
Bonuses:
-If you have enough extra felt (and you should), try making some pirate pants with some of the same techniques as the pirate coat.
-If you can find a small toy bird or parrot, glue that to one of the sleeve shoulders.
-This process works well with most disk-based games, regardless of platform. Congradulations, you can now pirate anything!