Homemade Halloween Costumes: Expert's Guide to Creating Realistic Historical Costuming

Halloween's coming, my favorite time of year, and as always, I'm thinking about the historical costumes I want to wear this time. Realistic historical costumes are fun to make and party hit! Not that it's much of a contest. My Halloween costume will be historical, like every costume I've ever made.

I admit it: I'm addicted to historical costumes, the more accurate the better. I swoon over period-perfect undergarments, and love learning how bum rolls worked, why formal Navy niform pants lace up the back, and how corsets gave way to bras over time.

I also like to dress in period-accurate clothing: Victorian, Elizabethan, medieval, Roman. I'm dying to create ancient Egyptian beadwork, and I can talk about pre-20th-century footwear for hours.

The real problem comes not with choosing costumes, but with deciding how accurate I want to be. Between corsets and high heels and pins, it's hard to decide where accuracy must end and pain prevention should begin.

Fasteners: Buttons, Zippers, and Pins

Zippers weren't invented until the late 1800s, and it took another fifty years for them to catch on. Buttons, on the other hand, were invented during the 1500s, but were denounced by Protestants as hooks the Devil could hang onto.

For this reason, most clothing made prior to the mid-1700s used only three types of fasteners: lacing, hook/eye fasteners, and pins. For a very few items (like bonnets) a simple string was used.

Laces aren't too bad as fasteners go, provided you don't pull them too tight, and they have the added advantage of being very adjustable. Below-the-arm laced bodices, for instance, are very forgiving of weight loss and gain. Hook/eye fasteners are more tedious to install, but at least they aren't typically painful.

The most common fastener used in early historical periods, alas, was the most potentially painful one. Pins --not safety pins, but straight pins, like those used by dressmakers -- were how you buttoned your shirt, fastened your skirt together, and even held your stockings to your garters. On the bright side, the extensive use of pins could provide a quick method of self-defense.

Period Undergarments

One of my favorite books covers Western underwear from Roman times (little or nothing worn) to Victorian times (everything imaginable worn).

* Primary undergarments for both men and women throughout Medieval and Renaissance history were long-sleeved, knee-length nightgowns called either shifts (women) or shirts (men). This undergarment showed through other clothing, such as bodices, vests, slashed jackets, etc.

* Women didn't wear anything like panties or bloomers until sometime in the 1800s. It was probably a little drafty.

* Men's undergarments were almost always simple. Women's undergarments, on the other hand, was increasingly complicated: shift, corset, stockings, pantalets, and sometimes an additional overshirt.

For most period costuming, undergarments don't matter a lot until you get to the massive structural underpinning of corsets and similar items for women. Shifts and shirts are necessary, but all the other stuff is pretty optional except for shaping underwear.

Unless you're an addict like me, most other undergarments can be modern. No one's going to see them.

Best Bets for Period Costuming

Everyone has a favorite historical period, and that should guide your choice. But some periods are much easier than others for costuming.

*15th century women's clothing was primarily a dress and fitted bodice. After this came the Tudor period, which became very complex indeed.

* Anything requiring fitted bodices can be made exceptionally sexy, even for women of relative flat chests. Custom corsets are your most important clothing item. You can find corset makers online, or even in your own area if you look up your regional Society for Creative Anachronism.

* Anything with a sword is likely to be sexy for a man. There's just something about cold steel.

* Hair is a woman's crowning glory. Keep it simple, but get it right. A proper hairstyle can make or break your costume. If you don't know what else to do, wear it straight and long, and put a wreath on your head.

Period Costume Shoes The Hardest Part to Get Right

The absolute hardest part of any period costume is the shoe. You can't find them, and most costume kits don't include instructions on making them. Well, fortunately throughout medieval history most people used basically the same shoe pattern (Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and others from ancient history used mostly forms of the sandal, which was quite different but easier to find).

Start with a piece of leather or other tough material you will be able to walk in easily. Cut a shape in it that looks like a fat T with rounded ends; the stem of the T should be two to four inches wider than the sole of your foot, depending on the size of your arch. The stem should be a little more than twice the length of your foot, and the cross should be long enough to fit around your ankle. The cross should have holes pierced in both ends of the arm so you can thread a cord through it.

To put the shoe on, place your foot on the T with your heel just below the cross. Fold the stem of the T up over your foot, and fold the two sides of the cross around your ankle.

Thread your leather cord through the two holes, and tie it off. Now wrap the cord round your ankle (crossing it like lacing), and then down around the rest of the shoe to bind the sides to your feet; bring it back up to the ankle, and tie it off. You'll wind up with a respectable peasant-style shoe that will last you at least through the night.

Look cold? That's why medieval people wore stockings everywhere. If waterproofing was required, many medieval peasants kept cleaned-out large intestines tied off at one end that they could slide over the foot and leg between the stocking and shoe.

You can make boots in a similar fashion, just using a really fat T bar and wrapping the cord all the way up your legs. Furry materials add warmth when you do this, and also look nicely barbaric for the perfect finishing touch on your Viking costumes.