hands-on activities

Bringing history to life with historical costumes is about fun, fashion and making memories that are unforgettable.  There is an element of stepping back in time and soaking up the time period that sometimes just reading about it can’t do.

(Warning: History Costume Picture Overload)

Too, if dressing up is just for young kids, then why do so many adults do it?  Because it is fun!  Besides fun though, dressing up or studying about the fashion or accessories of a time period is one way to spark a love of history that will last into adulthood.

I have many friends that are in historical reenactments and I have a new profound respect for them after I learned about the time they put into learning about a time period.  My sister is one of those persons.  Besides the fact I love her to pieces, we share kindred spirits over our fondness for history.  I could count on her to bring a historically accurate costume or two and tell us about a time period we are studying about.

She use to be in a lot of American history time period reenactments.

(My sweet sis shares a love of history with me.)

She had more time then than she does now to reenact, but I remember the hours and hours of research she pored into finding out about every detail of that time period to be sure her costume was historically accurate.

When she and her family would camp out at the rendezvous (meet ups to reenact a history event)  as they are called, they would only eat food from that time period prepared like they did and wear only clothes from that time period.  They would stay in character the whole weekend.  It truly was as if they stepped back in time.

The history books she collected and shared with me made me pine over wanting to join her.  Instead of doing that though because I was already homeschooling, I did the next best thing and made sure I included history costumes for my boys as we have learned about each history period.

I can’t really sew anything but a straight line and have basic sewing skills, but a lot of things nowadays can be hot glued.  Love that hot glue gun when you are crafty deficient in a hurry.

Sharing a few easy peazy tips today for a history costume, whether you hire it out to be hand made or use a handy hot glue gun, can make studying history go from boring to bustling.

{Our study of Ancient history by studying some of the Kings in the Bible.}

Material Matters

I have found that by looking both at Walmart and at JoAnn’s fabrics when they discount material, it kept the cost of making the costumes affordable.

In the picture above you can also see that when I found cheap inexpensive material and there was a lot of it, I used some of it on each kid instead of all of it with one kid.  Unless one kid wanted all of it of course.  This allowed me to use up a bolt or two of material that was discounted. {Notice the gold on each costume.}

Fringe came off an old curtain and the purple material on their costumes came from an old housecoat turned cape.

Things like beards are easy enough to find, batons decorated make great scepters for a king, cardboard paper is your friend for making crowns.

Key also to making historically accurate costumes is finding a picture your children like.  The internet is full of ideas.  That is part of the study of history too and they don’t realize that by studying and reading about the weapons, cooking and everyday life that you have just folded in an interactive history lesson.

In our group picture above, you can see that laundry baskets, makeup, sandals and brown flip flops make great accessories too for Pharaoh’s daughter, and we had a few Sarah and Abrahams in our group which used wigs, and material around the house.

When we studied about explorers, Westward Ho and Native Americans, I did find that at times it was a bit harder to find things for boys.  The moms of girls in our group found things their girls would wear and that boys won’t tolerate, but I did have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Of course making our own leather Native American costumes and moccasins were a must on this unit.  Tiny is wearing a shirt which is a chamois rag from the automotive section at Walmart, which are used for drying cars.  A few leather strings with some beads and we are in business.  For the older boys, I bought leather at Tandy Leather because I knew we would have several years out of wearing them.  With a leather hole punch, and leather we hand sewed the costumes, mine included.  Of course, my dear sister was the one spear heading this as we learned.  I encourage you to have a highly crafty girlfriend or two around.  Even some dads are great for ideas too.

Another trick I have learned is that a big man’s linen shirt works for a lot of time periods and works in the Westward Ho period too.  Khaki jeans imitate that time period too.  A few rugged looking accessories like some fake wolf skin, canteens and hats spice up the costume and are something that would be used in that time period.

When we studied the Renaissance period, I actually did hire a local lady to sew the costumes because this was a huge co-op for us.  Even at that though, I still had to pick out all the period material.

We hired part of the actors from the local Renaissance Fest to come and reenact for us and the kids did some reenacting.  Too, our kids acted out part of Romeo and Juliet as well as Robin Hood.  So historically accurate period costumes were important.

Tiny was Robin Hood and I found that using grommets for his cape was cheaper than using what I found in the craft store.  Again, linen shirts worked well for this time period, even for girls too.

In the picture above and right, Tiny’s life long friend was “King John” and he had his shirt sewn too.  Part of history is also about the accessories.  Cardboard is your friend I am telling you.  Some cardboard, pieces of leather and jewels from the craft store and you have a sword worthy of carrying.

An easy cardboard balcony made the telling of Romeo and Juliet come alive by our older high school kids.

Kelley and I won’t easily forget our fun trips to the local Goodwill to pick up table decorations when studying about early American history.  Have to love that place when preparing for our co-ops.  We wanted to mimic for the kids what a colonial or early American history table might look like.

Planning ahead is key and taking advantage of seasonal sales too.  So buy things this year for next year.  For example, the black candles I got on sale after the Halloween stuff went on sale.  We didn’t use the candles until later November.  The tea pot and tea cups to act out the Boston Tea Party event were just pennies at the Goodwill and all the kids got to take their cups home.

Some plastic fruit brought after Thanksgiving clearance and inexpensive colored beans made our decorations pop.

One side point, you will see that not each year did I make my kids dress up.  They had choices each year, though I did make it fun when they did.

More History Costume Ideas You’ll Love

I am not the only one that sees the value of history costumes.  Look at some of these links by my fellow bloggers that love it as much as we do and grab some ideas for yourself too.

(Pics Attribution: Susan Evans)

You’ll love the ideas Susan has over on her blog for Bible Costumes in 5 minutes.

(Pics Attribution: Teaching Stars)

I love the ideas that Kristen over at Teaching Stars has for Egyptian female pharaoh Hatshepsut.

(Pics Attribution: Teaching Stars)

And she has some great ideas as Queen Eleanor strolls the grounds of one of her summer palaces.

History is Fashionable

And, I also love what Heather’s daughter has been doing over at Blog, She Wrote about history fashion.

(Pic. Attribution: Blog, She Wrote)

Along with an author study, she is studying about the fashion of a period too.  Her daughter created her own pattern and introduced us to steam punk fashion.  Like Heather notes, be sure you look over all fashion pictures and content.  Sometimes, like anything else in this world, you want to be sure your daughter is looking at fashion pictures you approve of.  Some things in fashion can be downright dicey.

(Pic. Attribution: Blog, She Wrote)

Be sure to check out this post too at her blog: Project: Steampunk Fashion Design & Drafting

(Pic. Attribution: Layered Soul)

You have to check out Stacey’s post at Layered Soul too.  I agree, maybe her post should be Boys, Duct Tape and Weapons.  She shares some fun and easy tips on the Greco Roman period for easy history costumes.

Pirates, scoundrels, kings, queens, thieves and Robin Hood are all part of the fun of making history memorable.  Give life to the characters and events of the time by dressing up.  There is an endless list of characters to study about and mimic and endless ways of making history come alive through fashion and accessories of any time period.

Your children won’t easily forget your history lessons!

Do you have links to share of your kids dressing up or studying about historical fashion?

Hugs and love ya,

Did you miss these posts about other things to make to bring history alive?

• Hands-On Ancient Greece Activities for Middle School
• Ancient Rome Paint a Jester Activity
• Ancient Mesopotamia Sebutu Rolls Baking
• Ancient Egypt Narmer Crown Salt Dough Project

And also check out some fun resources! History Costumes & Fashion