Celebrate the Saints with These Easy, No-Sew All Saints Day Costumes
All Saints Day is quickly approaching! If you’re still unsure how to dress your family for All Saints Day, and are secretly a bit intimidated because you can’t sew or don’t have time to sew, this is the list for you. This post is for FEMALE saints, with easy-to-gather costume pieces and props. We’ve done many of these, so I’ll include photos of my girls’ costumes when possible, as well as samples of some of our props. Try not to overthink it – the costumes are going to look great!
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Female Saints:
- St. Gianna Molla –
- Costume: Any dress and a doctor’s jacket
- Props: Stethoscope, doctor’s bag, baby doll, and a doctor’s bag if you have one. It’s helpful to include a “Dr. Gianna” nametag.
- St. Philomena –
- Costume: Depending on which image of her you reference, either a blue dress with a red cape, white dress with a red or blue cape, or a flowy pink dress.
- Prop: Red and white flower crown (for purity and martyrdom); a palm branch or lilies (symbols of martyrdom and purity respectively), arrows, and an anchor. My daughter and I found a plastic anchor at a thrift store, but you can use cardboard or construction paper in a pinch. We also made the arrows out of wooden dowels, feathers, and construction paper.
- St. Ursula –
- Costume: Green dress and red cape.
- Props: crown, arrows and a flag of martyrdom. This crown from Amazon is affordable and VERY nice. My daughter got a TON of compliments, and it was essentially the same price as the cheap plastic crowns available on the same site. We printed a flag from the internet and glued it to a dowel rod.
- St. Dorothy –
- Costume: Depending on the depiction you’ve chosen, red dress with white veil, beige dress with a blue veil, or a big fancy red dress with a green shawl. We opted for a red dress with a white veil because my 3-year-old, bless her heart, changed her mind about her costume LAST MINUTE – AFTER I HAD JUST GIVEN BIRTH TO BABY #4 – and we had to throw something together in a pinch.
- Props: Flowers (roses), palm branch and a fruit basket. Our daughter carried a bouquet of silk roses from my wedding and we threw plastic toy fruits in a basket. I’m telling you this so you can understand how easily you can make this happen!
- Joan of Arc –
- Costume: Knight costume from any big box or online retailer
- Props: Flag with the Fleur de Lis; and if your sense of humor allows, paper flames or tulle flames (let’s be lighthearted about this – she’s in heaven experiencing eternal happiness)
- St. Lucy –
- Costume: White dress or robe with a red sash (the most common depiction of her)
- Props: a wreath of candles around her head (please don’t light the wicks for real), palm branch, and eyeballs on a platter. Remember, be lighthearted about this. God bless this Etsy shop for making a PDF pattern of the St. Lucy crown!
- Mother Teresa –
- Costume: White and blue sari. I’ve seen this done MANY times, both with blue ribbon and blue painters tape. It’s iconic, and what you feel is a meager effort will still be easily identifiable!
- ANY of the princess/queen saints – Barbara, Elizabeth of Portugal, Elizabeth of Hungary, Helen of Constantinople, Margaret of Scotland, etc.
- Costumes: Find a picture of one of these saints that matches a color of dress your daughter already owns. Use a scarf or play cape too if needed. There are a variety of crowns available with two-day shipping. You also can make your own. I promised “no sewing,” but I didn’t say anything about being spared from light crafting!
- Props:
- Barbara – Chalice, handheld castle figurine, palm branch. My daughter insisted on THIS crown for her costume (because the St. Ursula crown I mentioned earlier, in her mind, simply wouldn’t work. I don’t mind though because they hold up well, and they look AMAZING in person!)
- Elizabeth of Portugal – handheld crucifix and roses
- Elizabeth of Hungary – bread rolls or loaves
- Helen – a Cross – any size! As the finder of the True Cross of Christ, a wooden cross is the most appropriate. Try this one from Michaels
- Margaret of Scotland – scroll and scepter; her hair often is shown in long braids with ribbons wrapped around
- Mary, under any of her titles! – Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Heaven, Our Lady of Peace, Our Lady of the Rosary Our Lady of Knock…
- Costumes: This is another case where you can see what your daughter has available and pick her costume based on what you already have.
- Props: Without going through ALL her titles, remember that certain titles have certain distinguishing features, like Our Lady of Fatima having a gold crown and holding a rosary; Our Lady of Lourdes has a blue sash and flowers on her feet; Our Lady of Guadalupe’s symbolism is very specific (I always envisioned myself getting one of these muslin wraps from The Little Rose Shop to use as a mantle, but haven’t gotten around to it yet!); Our Lady of Mt. Carmel can have a blue or white mantle
BONUS: Easy options for making the palm branch of martyrdom:
– Buy a palm branch from a local craft store
– Cut one from green construction paper (optional: glue it to a dowel rod or skewer for stability)
– Cut one from green felt ((optional: glue it to a dowel rod or skewer for stability: we did this by cutting two felt palm branches and gluing them together with the dowel hidden in the middle)
That should get you off to the races! I can’t promise a follow-up post with boys’ costumes, but hopefully this inspires you to try something new.
Which saints have you chosen to dress as for All Saints Day? I’d love to see photos and hear what inspired you!
