If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading Pirate Jack Gets Dressed by Nancy Raines Day & Allison Black, check him out! This swashbuckler takes us through his morning dress routine, which consists of a long list of clothing items in a variety of colors, all in charming rhyme that begs to be read with a jaunty pirate-y accent. I love that there are some more unusual clothes, like a vest and sash, as well as colors often overlooked in books that focus on the rainbow, like gold and silver and brown. Hello, vocabulary!
Adding one clothing piece after another is a perfect fit for flannel adaptation. I first blogged about this set in a What We Wear/Clothing themed storytime and was inspired by a resource my state library put together on nominees for their Early Literacy Firefly Award (you can find their template in the 2020 program guide). I changed the set quite a bit, giving Jack his distinctive features from the book and lengthening his body so his sock and boot actually fit on his leg.
Thanks to reader Jennifer who asked about a template for this flannel set! I didn’t initially make a template, but scanned my finished pieces so you could recreate it if you wish. There are notes on the template that indicate where pieces might be layered, and a scan of a few of the back pieces to see how a couple of the trickier pieces are put together. One more note – my pieces are a little small. I think if I were doing this again, I would enlarge it a bit just to make it easier to see and work with. You should be able to use your printer dialog box to enlarge (probably anywhere from 20-50% might be good) and print on tablet (11×17) sized paper instead of the default letter (8.5×11).
Pirate Jack is a great multi-use flannel. You could use this one for a Clothing theme, as I did, one for Pirates or the Ocean, or, of course, Colors. It’s a great fit for the Collaborative Summer Library Program’s Oceans of Possibilities theme for summer 2022. Enjoy!
Download the Pirate Jack template here!
Storytime with Ms. Emily Library 