Sunday School or Bible Clubs > Visuals > Costumes
Roman Soldier
Breastplate--cut 2 sides from a cardboard box and cut one side into strips and trim the ends into points. Spray paint gold. Poke 2 holes in the top and tie them with a string to fit around your neck. Glue or tape a square of felt to the back of the breastplate. Try to gather it a little as you glue it on. Wear shorts or roll up your pants so they don’t show below the red “skirt.”
Cape--Cut a piece of red cloth to form the cape (this was an old tablecloth that I was going to throw away when it dawned on me that it would make a great cape for a Bible costume.) Fasten a chain or string at the shoulders with two safety pins. You can fold it to different lengths before you fasten it at the shoulders, depending on the height of the person. The cape is not essential, but it does cover up your street clothes, so the costume doesn’t have to be complete.
Helmet--this was just a construction helmet that I got second hand and sprayed with gold spray paint. The piece across the front and the cheek guards are cut out of cardboard, designs drawn with glue, and once that dried, spray painted gold. The pieces were taped to the helmet. (I think I actually used a glue gun to make the design, if I remember correctly, because I am always in a hurry. But white glue works, too--you just have to wait longer for it to dry.)
Sandals--Any kind of leather sandals that are fastened with velcro can fit lots of shoe sizes. Occasionally you can find Roman-style sandals in shoe stores. When I found a pair at Walmart, I bought it on the spot--I figured that was the cheapest pair of period shoes I would ever find! But if you can’t find these kind of sandals, cut straps to wrap around your legs and wear flip-flops or sandals you already own.
Egyptian
“Skirt”--wrap a white cloth around your waist and gather one end in the front, and tuck it into your shorts.
Collar--cut donut shapes out of paper or felt--layer different colors, or glue on design elements. The one shown here is made out of beads
Wig--buy a black wig, or make one by sewing black yarn in concentric circles to the panty part of pantyhose. Or you can simply use a black sweatshirt or T-shirt, pull the neck hole over your hair, and get a friend to help you drape it to look like a wig.
Eyeliner--put on thick, dark eyeliner that goes well past your eyes
Roman Soldier
High Priest
Man
Wise Man
High Priest
Robe--Use a baptismal robe, or make a simple white robe with elastic or drawstring neck and wrist openings. (White sheets may be the cheapest fabric.)
Tunic--Cut a piece of blue cloth to cover the front and back of the priest. Cut a neck hole, with a slit to make it fit over the head. If you don’t use the costume much, you can get away with not hemming the edges. Otherwise, use wonderweb or some kind of iron on bonding, or finish the edges with sewing. Fasten bells to the bottom of the tunic. I used Christmas tree ornament bells from a hundred yen store. You may want to pin these on with safety pins rather than sew them on, which would allow fairly simple removal so you can wash the costume.
Breastplate--I was fortunate enough to find a woven piece of fabric that was made with gold and blue and red thread. Even if you can’t find something like this, you can probably find some kind of fancy cloth. There is supposed to be one in the front and one in the back, fastened on with gold chains and rings. I only had one, so I used an old costume jewelry necklace and safety pinned it to the two top corners and around the neck. I added some gold tone earrings for the rings. The 12 “gemstones” are magnets from the hundred yen store. Since I also use this fabric to represent the torn temple curtain at Easter, I did not want to glue the gemstones to the cloth. So I put a small stainless steel cookie sheet behind it and held it in place with a belt.
Crown--a pillowcase works great for this. Just put some batting on top of the head to puff it up a little. It is held in place with a gold crown. I sewed one out of gold fabric for my children to play dress-up when they were young. It adjusts to head size with a bit of elastic in the back. But any toy crown that will fit over an adult head along with a pillowcase will work.
Man
Robe--Use a baptismal robe, or make a simple white robe with elastic or drawstring neck and wrist openings. (White sheets may be the cheapest fabric.) It is best to not have a yoke, but, of course, if your robe does have a yoke, don’t go make a new one without--Use what you have!
Optional Tunic--Cut a piece of colored cloth to cover the front and back of the priest. Cut a neck hole, with a slit to make it fit over the head. If you don’t use the costume much, you can get away with not hemming the edges. Otherwise, use wonderweb or some kind of iron on bonding, or finish the edges with sewing.
Headdress--I was fortunate enough to be able to buy a real middle eastern headdress. White works just as well. If you want a red checked one, just buy a large square of fabric. If you really want to get realistic, sew on a fringe along the edge, and a tassel in every corner. The black rings that hold on the cloth are hard and do not stretch. I you can use a bungie cord in place of this.
Egyptian
Man
Robe--Use a baptismal robe, or make a simple robe with elastic or drawstring neck and wrist openings. (sheets may be the cheapest fabric.) The one shown here happens to be an old bathrobe. If you use a wrap around bathrobe, fasten it with pins or something so it doesn’t come open in the middle of the show!
Optional Tunic--This one is an old tablecloth that I was going to throw away anyway. It matched the turban, so I wrapped it around one shoulder and pinned it. Mohamar Kadafi might be a person to provide inspiration for many costumes! Another option is to make a tunic like the high priest has on in the photo above.
How to make a turban--You need about 5 yards of fabric. Tie a knot and put the knot at the back of the head with the rest of the fabric coming over the head. Start twisting the fabric in the front of the head, and start wrapping it around the head. Keep twisting and wrapping until you get to the end, and tuck the end under. You can leave the bit at the back hanging down, or tuck it into the turban as well. An alternative way to wrap the turban is to put the knot on the side and tuck the extra fabric into the turban above the opposite ear so the fabric drapes in front of the face and only leaves the eyes showing.
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