St Veronica costume — Blog

A few people have asked about how I put together some of our All Saints' costumes last year so I'm ever-so-slowly getting that together for you. Here is St. Veronica before she wiped the face of Jesus...

When searching for veil ideas for St. Veronica, I kept coming across children holding small pieces of fabric bearing our Lord's image. Those are nice but I liked the idea of a full veil. Veronica's veil was probably not mantilla sized, but a much more practical head covering that may have been part of her garment. I didn't just want a symbolic prop... I wanted that veil.

We chose a plain purple for the tunic and first veil layer and just pieced it all together the way I do when I hack sew. Tunics are lovely for just being able to cut and stitch willy nilly. Then I chose a loose weave natural colored fabric for the important veil. My plan was to have it look like a regular veil until... the treasure is revealed....

Let's be real for a moment. I had about half a day to finish multiple costumes. I was not about to paint Jesus's face on a costume. So I scoured Pinterest until I found an easy way to print on fabric. Not because I was clever but because I was desperate. I will tell you how I did it but you have to promise me that you will not hold me responsible if you break your printer. I did not break mine... but I could have. You have been warned.

We do not have a color printer so I went googling for an image of our Lord that would transfer well into black and white. This one was perfect. Not only black and white but also actually not cheesy...

Then I found the easiest possible tutorial ever here. Other tutorials looked easy as well but required things like Citrasolv or spray adhesive, neither of which I had. The tutorial I used just involved a full sheet mailing label which was stuck to the back of the fabric before trimming and printing. Well, I didn't even have a full size label but I had half sheet labels! So I cut my fabric to 8.5 x 11" and stuck two labels next to each other to cover the whole piece. And then... I stuck a third across the middle seam to make it a little stiffer. And theeeeen....

I said a quick prayer and sent it through my printer. It all worked out just fine... but remember, I'm not saying it will for you. If you are in doubt at all, just plan ahead and buy what you need.

After I had my printed fabric, I fitted Jellybean into her costume and pinned the image exactly where we wanted it. Then I took it off of her head and machine stitched it to the veil. The edges are rough everywhere on the veil and that is how I wanted them to be, partially because I liked the look on St. Veronica and mostly because I hate hemming yards of costume at the 11th hour.

The costume was a hit and the image attached to the veil did solve one major All Saints' Day kid problem. You've probably heard this one before...

But Mommy, they'll know who I am before I give my clues!

So Jesus is hidden until she wishes to reveal him. Problem solved.