COSTUMES

DISNEYLAND'S PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ATTRACTION
THE REDHEADED WENCH (aka Scarlett)
"We wants the redhead!"

October 2012

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COSTUME CONSTRUCTION

Although the height of the pirate era was in the 1600s-1700s, Disney seemed to pay no mind to period authenticity with many of the garments. For instance, the Bridal auction features a woman in a hoop skirt which would have been seen in 1860. The Redhead's silhouette is closest to an an 1890's garment - a walking skirt and bodice with mutton sleeves - see this example of an 1890s walking dress. The vest is similar to the waist cincher accents which were sometime seen in the 1890s. She's also part 1890's saloon girl with her low cut bodice, and revealed ruffled petticoat.

Redhead Wench my bodice		Pirates Redhead bodice & skirt		Pirates Redhead skirt lace		Pirates Redhead my costume - front		Pirates Redhead my costume - back

FABRIC:

I used hot pink polyester lycra blend satin for the bodice and skirt (purchased from Mood - I was told it was the last bolt). It seems slightly lighter and warmer than the deep hot pink on the ride, but finding a perfect match is very difficult. Ideally the fabric should be polyester (or possibly acetate) duchess satin/bridal satin with no lycra in the blend. I settled for the blend because the color was the closest I could find on short notice. The drawback of the lycra blend is it snags very easily. I also used a matching acetate lining to line the bodice and flatline the entire skirt. The vest is made of cotton velveteen purchased from Seattle Fabrics. The hat is trimmed and embellished with the same cotton velveteen. The base of the hat is made from 100% wool felt in a fairly close matching shade of red called "cottage red" made by national nonwovens.

SKIRT PATTERN & CONSTRUCTION:

Without having a clear view of the back, my best guess is that the skirt should be a 5 gore walking skirt. True historical patterns seemed too full in the back and would need slight modification. If the Laughing Moon Walking skirt pattern #101 had not been so expensive, I would have tried it first as a base. I instead modified Simplicity 2851. I recall widening the front center gore, while narrowing the back gores and re-tapering the draft of the gore to minimize gathering at the waist. I also added the vertical darts seen on the real dress on both side panels.

I flatlined the skirt with matching lining and used french seams. I applied a deep satin facing to the skirt hem with 7 rows of lace attached (6 rows are used in the ride, but I didn't want lining fabric to show, so I extended the facing up a bit more and added a 7th row). I believe the animatronic's lace is roughly 2.5 - 3" wide. I thought I'd found a lace the appropriate width, but someone had put a remnant of narrower lace with the same design onto the wrong reel at JoAnn's. I bought that entire reel not realizing it was a mixed lot, and assumed the information on the reel was correct and mail ordered more of it to have the total yardage the dress required. Long story short, all of my lace is 3.5" wide which is too wide, but I had no spare time to return and re-order the correct width. I will say, if I find the exact pattern/design lace usee for the attraction on my next trip to Los Angeles fashion district I'll redo my lace. Otherwise, I'm leaving it.

BODICE PATTERN & CONSTRUCTION:

I strayed from attraction-authentic patterning because I needed to achieve a corseted shape. The true bodice pattern seems to be more of a bustier with cups. I instead grabbed the 1892 Truly Victorian ball gown bodice pattern I'd already modified to fit me from a previous project, altered the shape of the neckline, the waist hem line, and swapped out the sleeves. Yes, my bodice is boned and I'm not sure if that was overkill adding bulk, or if it helps keep it all fitted smoothly in place. Unfortunately, I was not able to make my neckline as low and wide as the animatronic's because she and I don't have the same build.

I relied on McCalls 2341 vintage bridal pattern for the sleeves (1980s patterns are great for this faux mutton sleeve). I widened the upper biceps sleeve a bit, and I did not use a zipper on the lower forearm. I created a placket opening at the wrist instead, which seemed similar to what had been done on the animatronic's dress. I did not use the black velcro you can see used in this photo of the redhead, I opted for clear snaps and had no need to carry the opening all the way up to the elbow. The lower forearm sleeve pattern called for it to be flatlined with cotton broadcloth. I almost think this added to some wrinkling issue I had with the lower sleeve I was not happy about. I may redraft and replace my lower sleeves eventually.

VEST PATTERN & CONSTRUCTION:

I went back to the 1892 Truly Victorian ball gown bodice pattern I'd redrafted into the redhead bodice. I removed the sleeves, converted the front darts to a seam, adjusted the hem line and this gave me a vest pattern to fit perfectly over my bodice. It doesn't even need snaps like the animatronic vest to keep it in place.

Other vest patterns which could be modified to work are Simplicity 3623, Simplicity 5582, and Butterick 6196.

VEST NOTIONS:

The vest is boned in the front center next to the eyelets to keep it from puckering, and the seams also have boning. I used the Drtiz black two piece eyelets 1/8" 103-1 and could only find them online at JoAnns. The narrow velvet cording was purchased from this etsy seller.

HAT:

I drafted my own pattern, but It was a bit rushed. It is just a tad large in scale. I found the book "From the neck up" by Denise Dreher to be the best instruction guide. I blocked my own buckram crown over a high dome poly crown block. It is highly advisable to have a block you can pin into (some plastic blocks made for wool felting can not be pinned into). I used heavy weight buckram but this is not stiff enough and easily caves in if you press on it while putting your hat on. I should have doubled up the layers of buckram, or attempted to block heavy crown buckram. I steam blocked my own flat wool felt into the crown shape. I experimented with brim shapes using poster board in order to create a pattern. I used crown buckram for the brim, wired the edge of the crown and the brim, and glued it all together with fabri-tac glue. I glued the blocked crown felt onto the crown buckram using acid free spray adhesive. The felt on the brim had to be glued on a section at a time painting on acid free rubber cement (water based glues can not be used on buckram). The edge was bound with a velvet bias strip cut from the same fabric used to make the vest. The velvet flowers and leaves were also made from the same velvet as the vest using a technique similar to this for fabric roses. I made my roses a bit too tall in height, so I would like to fix them too (I had to wing it and make them the day I wore the costume with no time to experiment with sizes).

Pirates of the Caribbean Redhead Wench Hat 1967		Pirates of the Caribbean Redhead Disneyland hat 2006		Pirates of the Caribbean Redhead Disneyland hat 2012

Pirates of the Caribbean Redhead my finished hat - front		Pirates Redhead my hat - side		Pirates of the Caribbean Redhead my finished hat - back

Blocking the buckram crown for the hat		Pirates Redhead hat mock-up and steam blocked felt crown progress		Hat mock-up side view

UNDERGARMENTS:

I wore a Laughing Moon Victorian corset (Pattern #100) underneath the bodice. I also added Victoria's Secret Knockout Push-up bra in a size larger than I wear and added extra cup pads to it. When wearing a corset under a skirt, one needs some form of petticoat to hide the ridge from the edge of the corset (I also had my bodice tucked in like the ride, so I had two ridge lines below the waist to contend with). However, the redhead in Disneyland wears no petticoat like the animatronic in the Magic Kingdom. I had to get creative and whipped together a 3 tiered petticoat made of matching lining fabric used on the skirt. It ends a few inches above my knees so it is not seen when I lift my skirt, yet acts as a buffer between the corset and skirt to hide what I call "corset line" from showing through. I also wear a pair of black fishnet stockings.

SHOES:

I used satin dyeable bridal shoes which were dyed to match the dress, and extra swatches of the dyable shoe fabric that were dyed so I can add the tabs and buckle embellishment to the shoe. Unfortunately I discovered after wearing the shoes with metal rhinestone buckles, that the metal prongs kept catching and snagging the skirt lace. In hind sight I believe a better plan to make these more wearable would have been to replicate exactly what was done on the ride, make a faux buckle using rhinestone trims with no metal prongs. I may need to remake my shoes.

Pirates of the Caribbean Redhead Wench Pink satin covered shoes and rhinestone buckles

Pirates Redhead Shoe Modification		Pirates Redhead Shoe Modification		Abbey shoe from Dyeable

WIG:

I ordered it from a wig shop and had been told it was a Raquel Welch wig style "Brittany" but I find no such style in their catalogue. It came without tags so I have no idea what brand or style it really is. The color I ordered is #31/130. It's a dark red mixed with a bit of brunette. The closest thing I spot online is Brittany by Paula Young - but they don't offer 31/130. I did have a few inches trimmed off the length of the wig by a hair stylist.

JEWELRY:

The Redhead at Disneyland wears a necklace with an open filigree pendant and an oval cameo inside. I could not find that exact filigree frame, but did find a diamond shaped filigree cameo on ebay which was a fair substitute. It is threaded onto a black velvet ribbon.

I don't believe the Redhead originally wore rings. I'm not sure when they were introduced, but it does not look like she had them before the ride closed for the big refurbishment in 2006 (see photo here). It seems she may be wearing a single silver ring with a square clear stone in this 2008 photo. In 2011 we took this photo which shows a circular black stone ring on the ring finger. By January 2012 she had two rings, A square pink (or red) ring on her index finger, and the black ring on her ring finger. I was very lucky and stumbled on the same pink ring on ebay!

Disneyland Redhead Necklace Brooch		My Necklace cameo brooch		Redhead's Black ring seen on Disneyland ride 2011		My black ring purchased on ebay

Redhead pink and black rings Disneyland 2012		Disneyland Redhead Pink or Red Ring 2012		My Ring same setting as ride		My Ring front view

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