The Costume Chronicles

Welcome to the Costume Chronicles, the community scrapbook of The Wardrobe Door. Here you can share pictures and and reports of costumes you've made, and see the handiwork of your fellow Narnia costumers!

Chronicles are arranged chronologically, starting with earliest submissions. Enjoy!

Susan and Lucy

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe


Susan's Coronation Gown

Ashley

I fell in love with Susan's coronation gown and just had to make it. The bodice and skirt are made of light blue crushed penne (image). The sleeves are of darker blue satin (image). I used a blue and gold trim around the sleeves and the neckline (image). The back is laced with a gold cording (image). I love the long flowing sleeves on this dress. I worked very hard on this dress and think that it does resemble Susan's dress closely (image).

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Susan's Archery Dress

DaughterofEve81

"Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen." Well, here are the pictures and descriptions of my interpretation of Susan's archery dress.

For fabric, I used a material called Alova Suede for both the dark green shade of the dress and the dark blue shade of the cloak. My mint green lining was a couple of yards of broadcloth.

The pattern I picked was McCall's 4490. And the major alterations I had to make were the front neckline, the slits and ends of the sleeves, and the back lacing. For shoes I decided to pay tribute to a behind the scenes picture of Anna and Georgie. It appears in this photo that Anna is wearing white tennis shoes. So I thought it would be fun and much more warm and comfortable than sandals!

The trim for my cloak I found on Ebay. It is a Konta-2 1/4" Red Trim. I made the cloak from two yards of the Alova Suede and without a pattern.

It was a rather pricey undertaking but well worth the effort! It is by far the most comfortable costume I've ever made. Great job to everyone else who has made a costume!

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Susan's Archery Dress

Snawpee

Made in four days, using McCall's 4490 view C as a base.

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Lucy's Coronation Gown

Snawpee

Made this for a friend using Butterick 6930 as a base.

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Lucy's Coronation Gown

Denice/trufolk.com

Poppy red panné velvet child's cloak made by me for daughter, 11 years old. Machine designs done in light gold color. The designs took 30 min apiece to place on the cloak taking a total construction time of 17 hours.

Silver panne Lucy dress made also by me has slightly puffed sleeves, round neckline trimmed in white braid with silver beads.

Crown found at Hancock fabrics.

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Lucy's Dress

Elisabeth

This is Lucy's dress that she wears when all of the children get into Narnia, made for my sister to wear to the first showing of the Narnia.

The original is made of a reproduction print, with pink and purple flowers, accented with green leaves, which, from a distance appears purple. Because I could not find an approximate facsimile, I used a green print from our local Joann's store what had a farily '40's feel. The pattern is Sense and Sensibility's (www.sensibility.com) 1914 Girl's Afternoon dress, with the bodice puff removed.

The front is made up of three pieces - two sides and an inset. The sides are scalloped and edged with white piping. The sides were then topstitched to the inset, in the ditch, to use a quilting term.

The sleeves are lengthened about an inch from the original pattern, and I added a ruffle, set into the bottom of the sleeve band.

For the skirt, I simply made the skirt narrower and longer, as my sister is thin and tall.

I used a simple cotton muslin for the collar, and closed the back with buttons and a placket, like the original.

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Susan's Archery Dress

Aslanchild

I designed my own version of Susan's Archery Dress as close as I could come to the images we had available in November when I made it. It laces up in the back, has princess seams in back and front, and has the elongated cloth at the wrist, extending almost to the knuckle in front. I included hand-stitched viney embroidery at the appropriate areas. Although I don't have any pictures of them, I also wore a bow, quiver, horn, and cape all hand-made to look like Susan's at the midnight showing.

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The Pevensie Children Costumes for Narnia: the Musical Staged Production

Theatrepirate

I put together the costumes for the four Pevensie children in a recent high school production of Narnia: the Musical.

I decided to go with a "boarding school" type costume for the four kids in my play. Even though, in reality, the children would not have been wearing such uniforms when they traveled to their uncle's home, I wanted to dress them all alike so that they would not only look connected to each other, but would also stand out more against the other characters and costumes in the play.

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I put the boys in navy pants and and all four in the same white shirts (I was going to put Edmund in shorts, but he spent so much time being thrown to the ground in the play that he ended up having to wear knee pads!) I found some discounted plaid fabric that looked very uniform-like, and I made the dresses based off of an old jumper pattern I had, and I had a basic vest pattern for the boys. My favorite touch on these costumes was the "school crest" I gave the boys to wear. It was a gold cross, which I thought was a neat bit of symbolism. I did give a little nod to the movie by designing the tunics that Edmund and Peter wear in the battle based on a production photo I saw of William Mosley in his red tunic. (I included one photo below of my Peter wearing the tunic.)

This link is to my online photo album, which contains several shots of the actors (with their permission) in their Pevensie costumes. Some shots are from the production and some were publicity photos.

 



Susan Archery Dress

Carrhunger

For the Susan Green Dress it was a task getting the dress to look like hers in such a short time.

Notes

We used polyester fabric. Mistake. It did not allow for movement and it bunched a lot as it could not sit close to the body. You can see excess above my belt in many of the shots. It happened when ever the belt pulled against my body and slide up the fabric.

Belt: attach it or achor it to the dress so it doesn't straighten out. I forgot to.

I did not make a full underdress. I figured I would be too warm so I faked it with a neckline and the inner sleeve stitched to the outer sleeve.

I made the dress closed (no zipper or closure) and simply allowed a fold in the back. The dress went on larger and was sinched in by the lacing.

I have not faced the detailling on the edges. I may wait until I can make it from a better fabric.

Props

The quiver is vac formed styrene in two parts. You can find styrenes at hobby stores and, if you are lucky, vac forming services there as well. If not local hobby shops, try calling display manufacturers. Then we screwed leather straps to it. Even though styrene is white do paint it with automotive paints as styrene does tend to go yellow after a bit of exposure to elements.
The bow is a piece of plastic pipe heated with a paint gun so that it will bend into shape. The ends are wood bits and the 'arrow rests' and 'detail' are bondo. Once more auto paints are used for colouring. The string is elastic as to not stress the materials. I hope to rebuild this bow authenticly. If I do, I'll have to let you all know how it turned out.

The horn was the quickest to do as it is just a piece of wood carved out to give the impression of a horn. We used the same paints and screwed in little brass loops for attaching it to the straps.

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Horn
Horn Close
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Quiver
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Slideshow video: Susan

 


Susan's Coronation Gown

Amber

This dress was created with light blue velvet and turqouise blue bridal satin. I hand embossed the velvet using a flat iron on high heat (no steam) and sprayed the pile of the velvet with water. When placed pile side down on top of a rubber stamp and ironed, the design comes out onto the fabric.

I used Butterick B4571 and modified it so the sleeve had one piece instead of three (it was the bell and topsleeve put together, no inner sleeve) As well, I changed the collar to be rounded. I sewed a band of satin to the topsleeve but not the bottom, so it has a prettier flow and is not bunched. There is flat gold braid type trim on the sleeves. I will be doing similar for the collar (which is not yet put on) but with rick rack instead. Both collar and sleeve bands will be beaded.

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Susan's Archery Dress

Amanda

My Dad first read the Chronicles to my younger siblings and I when I was about 8 or 9, and we instantly fell in love with them. I've always loved Susan, could easily relate to her personality, and I would always play that I was her. So when I heard that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was being made into a movie, what was more logical than for me to make a "Susan" dress?

When the first images were released, I instantly fell in love with her archery dress. I loved its elegance and simplicity. It was beautiful enough to be worn to a medieval festival, and yet simple enough to put on and run around in the woods without worrying about ruining it. So I decided to make it, and wear it when I went to see the movie.

I did tons of research while making this gown. I studied every picture I could get my hands on, followed two forum threads on the dress, listened to tons of other girls' suggestions, and experimented galore.

I made a mock up out of muslin first, which took a while to get everything right. On December 9th, to celebrate the opening of the movie, I cut out my entire dress. As you can guess, I didn't finish it in time to see the movie in, but that's okay - I'm still happy!

The dress went together well and I am very happy with the way everything turned out! I was so afraid that there would be something "not-quite-right" with the dress, but it's absolutely perfect! It was a lot of work, but so worth it!

For lots more pictures, an extensive write-up of the original dress and my entire experience re-creating it, visit my Archery Dress Page.

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Lucy's Blue Narnian Dress

Debbie

The dress was made in two parts, the underdress to the same pattern as the main blue dress. I used a basic bodice pattern and adapted it from that. The underdress is white cotton, fully lined in the same cotton, and the overdress is a slate blue thick cotton, with the bodice only lined.

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The underdress is separate from the blue dress, except at the front buttons.
There is embroidery round the front opening, stretching over the shoulders, and round the sleeve hems. It's pretty much the same colour as the dress and quite hard to see.

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The sleeves were probably the hardest part, particularly lining them. I settled for the lining it twice, the inner lining is identical to the blue sleeve, and then there is a partial lining with the seam at the top of the sleeve, finishing just above the flared part of the sleeve.

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I used the 9 piece seaming mentioned on this site, with the 3 piece sides.

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The back of the dress is laced up with fabric loops, in the photo I had used cord, but have since found a better substitute.

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The cloak is made of a soft curtain fabric, and is nearly a full circle.

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Susan's Play Clothes

Blair

All of Susan's Play Clothes outfit was obtained from already owned clothing from different sources. The only purchased article were her socks which came from Foley's.

Susan costume page


Lucy's Lamppost Dress

Noel

Lucy's Lampost Dress was hand sewn from the Butterick 6419 pattern. The fabric was obtained from our Hancock Fabrics store. Her shoes came from a second hand shop and her green sweater from Goodwill. She brought her own socks and the bow was handmade from ribbon purchased at Michael's.

Lucy costume page


Susan's Green Archery Dress

Blair

Susan's Green Archery Dress was hand sewn from the McCall's M4490 pattern. The dark green fabric was obtained from our Hancock Fabrics store, as well as the purple fabric for her cape, which we actually used upside down, using the dull side of the fabric because it had the better look. The cape's lacing was fancy ribbon also from Hancock. Her shoes were borrowed and she owned the belt.

The archery props came as a full set from 3Rivers Archery online. We order the #2377 Lil' Indian Bow and Arrow set. To give it the right look, bronze metalic paint was used on the bow and arrows. Red tempra paint sponged onto the arrow feathers gave that the right look and red maroon spray paint was used on the bow's handle and string. Gold string was wrapped around the arrows and bow handled just like it looks in the official movie guide's picture on page 59. A red belt was added to the quiver so Susan could carry it over her shoulder.

Susan costume page


Lucy's Blue Narnian Dress

Noel

Lucy's Blue Narnian Dress was hand sewn from the McCall's M4490 pattern. I purchased the wrong size, however, and so we had to alter the pattern greatly to fit Lucy. The great embroidered turquoise fabric was obtained from our Hancock Fabrics store, as well as the red fabric for her cape. Her shoes and red belt came from a second hand shop. The weapon props came from Toys R Us.

Lucy costume page


Lucy's Blue Narnian Dress

Liv/Alatariel

Greetings! Liv here, known as Alatariel on the forums. Here's what I did to make Lucy's Blue Narnian Dress for my younger sister when we went to the midnight showing of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Reference image
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Materials: 3 yds of blue polyester cloth that looked and felt a little like suede-cloth ($3 per yd at JoAnn Fabrics), 2 yds pale blue cotton from Goodwill, blue satin ribbon, and three silver Celtic knot buttons.

Pattern: My dress pattern was very loosely based on Butterick 4099, an easy children's pattern. I redrew the sleeves, altered the neckline heavily to allow for the slit with buttons, and lengthened the skirt. I started this dress in August, before there were many reference pictures, so I made it with bodice and skirt seams, rather than side seams like the original.

Making of: I didn't really use the directions on the pattern, mainly fitting them together and altering them to fit the concept I had from the pictures I had seen. The bodice and sleeves were fully lined with the light blue fabric. For the neckline buttoning, I sewed small loops of blue ribbon on one side of the slit, and my three buttons on the other side. I set a short zipper in the back for ease getting in and out of the dress. I left off the embroidery as I was running out of time.

Extras: My little sister and I are both Scottish Highland dancers, and our shoes, called ghillies, are almost exactly what Lucy wore, so she wore those for her shoes. Here's a picture of them.

We found a red tooled leather belt at Goodwill, so we went with that and dispensed with the cordial bottle, as I was running out of time with three other costumes to make!

Belt detail

Here are the pictures of my completed dress. Sorry the quality is not high!

Full length
Close up of neckline
On floor

Well, that's how I did it! I had a wonderful time researching and making this costume, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it! Many thanks to NarniaWeb and the other Narnian costumers for your help and encouragement!

 


Archer Susan

Marie

The cloak was a lovely lightweight green fabric I found at goodwill, and there was just enough to make a cloak. It's a basic semi-circle with a pointed hood. It's cut to just hang off the shoulders, but stay back, out of the way. The clasp is a gold clasp from JoAnn's, w/ a pretty design.

For the quiver, I didn't want to paint it white since it was my grandpa's hunting quiver, so I painted on some simple swirly designs. The arrows were also hunting arrows, but the colors were perfect! So I sawed off the arrowheads to make them safe for public. I don't hunt anyway.

The sword-belt (I know, I know,.. but I thought the outfit looked better w/ a sword!) was a modified luggage strap, and can hold the sword horizontal or at a 90 degree angle. (It hangs a lot better when I'm wearing it, that dressform is too small.)

The shooting glove was originally a lighter color, I just glued a darker leather on top of it (main part only). The bow is not safe strung, but I painted it brown & white so it would look cool, originally for an elf costume. The wristguard has no modifications.

Didn't have time to make a new dress, so I used this one, (storebought) 'cause it had a good look, including bell (?) sleeves that you can't really see well in the pictures. Not shown are: brown & black leather riding boots, and an optional crown (who fights w/ crowns? but it looks cool.) that I made w/ silver floral wire. I guess I'll include a link to crown pics too. I know it's not canon from the movie, but I made what I could w/ the time & resources I had, and wore it that night (midnight show), and can't wait for the next time!

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Susan's Archery Dress

forAslan_733

We used McCall's pattern M4491, view C. For the sleeves, we drew an extension pattern, including the slits above the elbow and the flared cuff. We extended the lining and gathered it where it shows through the slits. At the neckline, we cut and sewed a slit. Then on either side of the slit we put in two eyelets and laced them up. From the lining pattern we made an insert with a higher neckline, and when worn it looks like a seperate underdress at the neck. After visiting several fabric stores and looking online, we were finally able to get a nice medium-weight cotton blend fabric in a good green. It's been very nice for this outfit since it has a slight stretch to it.

 


Lucy's British Costume

Alora

Here I am on the left, as Lucy Pevensie, and my friend, Aidan-Lalaith, is on the right as the White Witch. Since neither of us could afford anything fancy, we raided the goodwill and came out with my costume (a plaid skirt, green sweater and cotton shirt), for $5.

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Although the green sweater isn't too accurate, it was fun!

(For the WW, we went more with generalizations rather than the specific movie WW, and went snow queen style, with the white coat, white layered skirt, and icy blue make-up. To top it off, she's wearing a starry coronet, and we dusted snow on each other!

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Although our costumes aren't very movie accurate, we still had a blast making and wearing them, and we even got a few comments on them!


 

Susan's Coronation Gown

Jeni

Using the McCall's pattern [link] recommended by the Narnia site, and an afternoon hunting for fabric in Los Angeles Fashion district, I constructed the dress. The body of the dress is the powder blue patterned silk jacquard fabric. the sleeves are a silky crepe. The gold detail is just trim and buttons I found at the local fabric store. I free handed the cape, and it wasn't as perfect as I wanted it to be, but it was close. The crown is made out of silk flowers that I fashioned then spray-painted gold.

Kodak gallery here
(Free registration, or use a bypass password site like BugMeNot)


Lucy (Blue Dress)

tyreflections

This Lucy costume was made as fulfilment of a wish for a 9 year-old birthday present. The soft grey/blue fabric is 100% poly -- easy to care for with a heavier weight.

The under-dress is a lighter shade of blue/grey made of lightweight cotton. It is only a top -- there is no skirt attached.

The embroidery is dimensional fabric paint.

The cloak is made of faux suede -- a heavy-weight, yet soft fabric that drapes nicely.

See 5-Image Album Here