10 minute Roman Costume

For this costume you will need:


         - Large Brown T-Shirt (turned inside out if it has designs on it)
         - Large Red T-Shirt (turned inside out if it has designs on it)
         - Strip of extra brown fabric
         - Large square of red fabric
         - Straight pins
         - Fabric scissors
         - hot glue
         - Paper bag
         - paper twine (or regular twine. I just like the paper cause it's wider and shows up nicely)

First things first, plug in your glue gun. You will want it warming up while you get your shirt cut. Take your brown shirt and cut off the sleeves. Then try the shirt on your child. You will need to mark with a straight pin on the front and back, a visible stopping point for your slits in the front of your shirt. You will want the slits to come up to the top of the leg, but not all the way to the hip.

The best part of working with T-shirts is they don't need to be zig zagged. You can cut them however and they don't unravel. Now, try the shirt on again and mark with straight pins where the twine goes to make the chest shape. Take the shirt off your little Roman and put a paper bag inside the shirt to prepare for gluing. (this step isn't 100% necessary, but sometimes the glue goes through the shirt. So I find this step helpful)

Lay your twine over your straight pin markings for the chest and cut to length. Then using the hot glue gun, glue the twine down in at least 5 spots per each side of the chest. It isn't necessary to glue the entire piece of twin down. I have washed this costume 3 times and the glue only comes off if the dryer is too hot. Even then it only comes off in a few places.

Now, take your big square piece of Red fabric (I had one in my fabric box, but you can always cut out the back of another red shirt) and glue the top two corners to the brown shirt shoulders. Gather it if necessary and glue again to make sure the cape isn't sagging.

Put the red shirt on first, then the brown shirt that has been cut. Make sure the cape falls to the back when your kid puts it on. Sometimes their head can get caught in the wrong place. Now take your extra strip of brown fabric (I had one in my craft box, but you can always cut the bottom off another shirt) and tie around their waist. No helmet, but unmistakably Roman. Not too bad for a free costume!