How to Create a Celtic Dress Up Costume

We made a Celtic costume out of bits and bobs we had at home.  Old pajamas, especially if they are tartanish, are perfect for a Celt.  I gave T an old pair of mine.  They were a bit big, but he didn’t mind 🙂

He paired my pajamas with his own over sized plain t-shirt.  When I was much younger I made a big floaty dress with some lovely thick heavily woven pale tarten.  He ripped this up and shared it with his sister.  C made one half into a skirt and he used the other half as a light cloak, fastening it with a celtic knot design he had coloured in, laminated and attached to a pin to create a very simple brooch:

Using Step into Ancient Mesopotamia, we made a neck decoration from yellow Plasticine and some arm cuffs from loo rolls, sliced down their length and covered in foil:

Finally we stuck his hair up with a flour and water mixture, and painted his face according to his wishes.  He chose a Celtic blue and I think the final look is very authentic!

He changed his light cloak for a fur cloak (made from some fur material we had owned for years), grabbed some old wood from our garden and a branch off a tree which he sharpened to fashion a sword, and suddenly he was warrior:

Such a simple costume to make, yet it kept him busy for hours and hours in pretend play:

His sisters made similar costumes, one using a tartan picnic rug for a skirt (held on with a home made brooch, and the other using the other half of the dress T had used as a cloak.

They were literally outside for hours playing at being Celts:

Apart from the face paint, this costume cost us nothing except the children’s imaginations.  You will see all these materials crop up again in our Viking unit study and our Anglo-Saxon unit study.

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For lots more ideas for studying the ancient Celts please do visit my pinterest board: