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DIY history costumes for boys


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Boys stuff is harder than girls because it is mostly tailoring Papa's stuff down throughout a lot of history, and tailoring is a bear, but some drop shoulder tunics would probably be a good place to start. That and hats. Most of the fun in dressing males historically is in the hats. :)

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My kids run draw on their bodies with blue face crayon, strip down to their underwear, and call themselves Celtic warriors. Or, is that not what you had in mind?

 

We have lots of pieces of fabric that gets used as capes, along with hats and swords etc. When my boys were quite little we made tunics out of white pillow cases.

 

A green cape, a green hat and a bow and arrow and you are Robin Hood. Black cape, black hat, eye patch, and sword and you are a pirate. Purple cape, yellow felt crown, sword, and you are a king,

 

And lots of Lyra face crayons! beards, scars, eyebrows are all possible with face crayon.

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We've used these..

http://warfarebyducttape.com/

and even held a day where about 20 kids struggled with the patterns, corregated cardboard (boxes) and very sticky coloured ductape and ended up with a variety of great and colourful Greek, Roman, Norman and Barbarian helmets.

I haven't got around to organising a swords + shields day yet, but my dd enjoys wearing her helmet, tunic, money pouch and sword.

 

I should not have found this link for you as I see they have two new booklets I don't yet have.

The tunics and capes here are very basic but work.

 

If anyone has read Don Quixote, with the cardboard beaver he fashioned, you'll get a kick out of this. If only poor Don Quixote had ductape too.

 

ETA: Greek Warrior picpost-9479-0-04093600-1359686085_thumb.jpg

Edited by Pod's mum
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We've used these..

http://warfarebyducttape.com/

and even held a day where about 20 kids struggled with the patterns, corregated cardboard (boxes) and very sticky coloured ductape and ended up with a variety of great and colourful Greek, Roman, Norman and Barbarian helmets.

I haven't got around to organising a swords + shields day yet, but my dd enjoys wearing her helmet, tunic, money pouch and sword.

 

I should not have found this link for you as I see they have two new booklets I don't yet have.

The tunics and capes here are very basic but work.

 

If anyone has read Don Quixote, with the cardboard beaver he fashioned, you'll get a kick out of this. If only poor Don Quixote had ductape too.

 

My children must never see this.

 

eta: or my husband.

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Thanks for the links and ideas. That duct tape hat book looks really neat. And the other too. We made viking helmets out of ductape this fall and shields and swords and they wore dad's old t-shirts with our belts around them. Now they want to dress like explorers... I guess I need to start gathering some basic things. We really don't have many play hats besides construction and fireman.

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Our boys have just a few items, but you can layer them to make a wide variety of costumes.

 

Hooded cloak, pants with a fringe on the side seam, chore boots, jumpsuit, and just lots and lots of weapons. :)

 

Robin Hood, Star Wars, Warriors, etc.

 

If you want to buy it, try: Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc.

http://jas-townsend.com/

 

And you may also want to look for hand-me-downs from other local homeschoolers.

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Yes tunics and capes are a great place to start. There are lots of tutorials and YouTube videos on making simple no sew tunics. For Halloween costumes we had a lot of success starting in the women's section of the thrift store - the smaller sizes can often be adapted to make good boy's costumes. It workes better than the men's section because the items are smaller and there is more diversity of options available. I found a lovely Talbot's shift dress became the foundation for a hypaspist (shield bearer in Alexander the Great's Army), a pair of women's linen pants and vest were the founation for a Teddy Roosevelt Rough Rider costume, some mismatched plaids became a Gaul warrior and so on.

 

I haven't taken it, but this class also seems like it might be fun. http://www.craftsy.com/class/The-Costume-Box-Dress-Up-for-Holiday-and-Every-Day/35

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