How to make a quick and easy Ancient Roman toga and more

Help! You need an Ancient Roman outfit for school tomorrow and it's got to be easy to make… Don't worry because here's our simple, no-sew, Show Me version. It's made of two pieces of material - a tunic and a toga.

We've also got a snake bracelet and scroll for you to make.

All photos © Rachel Hayward

You will need:
An old white sheet (that your parents don't mind you cutting up!), sewing scissors, and a grown-up's help for the toga and tunic bit.

For the no-sew tunic (boy or girl)

Get a grown-up to measure you for the length of your outfit to just below your knee.

For our 9 year old models, we cut a metre in length and 70cm for the width.

Fold the material lengthwise in half and cut a quarter shape out of the folded corner for your neck hole as shown in the photo (see left).

For the Ancient Roman toga
A toga is basically a long rectangular shape of white cotton material. It folds over the tunic.

We made ours the length of the single bedsheet and then cut a strip 80cm in width.

How to wear your toga
Get dressed like a Roman! First put the tunic on and tie it at the waist with a belt. Then put the toga round your neck. Grab the end of the right side in your right hand as shown in the photo (left).

Pull the right side under your right arm and over your left shoulder.

You can tuck the right side into your belt as shown in the photo (left).

Have you got time to add some accessories to your outfit?

Click on the link to make an Ancient Roman snake bracelet?

You will need: foil to make the snake bracelet, a black permanent marker pen for the snake eyes and scale pattern, a pipe cleaner, card for the snake bracelet and PVA glue.

Here's a snake bracelet design from the Petrie Museum online collection.

You can find more Ancient Roman jewellery on the British Museum's website in its Young explorers section.

Why not print off the larger image of the Jet pendant and turn that into a necklace?

Make a scroll
We made the scroll out of a paper towel tube and wrapped it in brown paper. We then cut two circles out of card and used string inside the tube to attach one circle to another at each end of the tube. See photo.

Good luck with your outfit and don't forget to send us a photo!