How to Make a Female Toga With Sleeves
Flowing, intricately folded and highly adaptable to changing fashions, Greek and Roman togas took on different shapes and colors over the centuries. Woman wore different styles than men, typically hanging straight down like a dress as opposed to the over-the-shoulder male styles. By analyzing statues, extant paintings and mosaics, scholars have identified the elegant, long-sleeved version sported by women as the "chiton," which made its way to Greece from Phoenicia, an area that encompasses modern day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
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Things You'll Need
- 12-foot-long 5-foot-wide length of fabric
- Tape measure
- Pencil
- Scissors
- 4-foot length of braided cord
Instructions
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Pick up a 12-foot-long piece of fabric that drapes easily and elegantly. Unroll the fabric at the store before you buy it and drape some over your arm to see how it hangs and falls. Look for a weightier fabric like linen that doesn't wrinkle easily and holds its shape. Wool and linen were commonly used in ancient times, but silk also drapes well.
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Fold the fabric in half at the middle of the 12 foot length, so you have a 5-foot-by-6-foot rectangle. Fold the fabric in half again along the 5-foot-long edge so you have a 2.5-foot-by-6-foot rectangle.
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Get your measurements for the dimensions for the toga's neck. Measure across your upper chest from one collarbone to the other. Measure from your shoulders, straight down your chest, to the point your shirt starts or where you would like the toga top to start.
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Mark out your measurements along the center fold on your rectangle, at the point where the two folds meet. Measure half of your collarbone to collarbone measurement along the 2.5 foot fold, and the full shoulder to shirt measurement along the 6 foot fold. Mark each point lightly in pencil. Draw a gently sloping arc connecting the two lines and cut out the neck hole.
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Open your toga along the second fold, leaving the fabric folded into a 5-foot-by-6-foot rectangle. Cut 1.5 feet in from each side along the 5-foot fold.
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Place the toga over your head. Tie the braided cord tightly around your waist, letting the loose ends hang down off center in the front. Pull the fabric up at your waist so it drapes over the braided belt cord in a loose, billowy fashion. Continue to pull fabric up until the bottom edge of the toga reaches the desired length.
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Check that you've pulled the fabric up evenly on all sides of your body and that you have ample arm space in the side gaps. Pull the two edges closed on each side of your body and re-secure your belt in this final position.
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References
- Photo Credit Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
