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!

Peter and Edmund

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe


Edmund Coronation

Denice/trufolk.com ~

Silver/blue suede fabric tunic with standing collar. Has darker blue under sleeves in same fabric. Trimmed in a blue and silver braid. His cloak is silver panne lined in the same silver and blue braided trim. Made for my son, 8 years old.

The Crown is also from Hancock fabrics.

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Peter, the High King

Eli

We downloaded a lion shield, enlarged it and cut/pasted it on large cardboard box cut to shape. Also fashioned Peter's sword from the same box and painted it silver. Eli (5 years old...and Peter's greatest fan) dressed in a knight costume...the same colors as Peter... This was his Halloween costume AND we wore it to the theater opening weekend! His little sister was Aslan the lion.

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Peter's Play Clothes

Isaac

This costume was fairly easy to assemble with a plain grey shirt, trousers,
suspenders, and a pair of black shoes. I went as Peter to a local harvest
party and later wore the same costume to opening day.

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Peter


Carrhunger

I wanted to share this one picture with you and give you a little background on the two things people seem most drawn to.

Peter's outfit
The armour was custom made for Jeff (Peter) many years ago and he was looking for a reason to wear it. But the red over tunic he made with a little help from us. His friends.

Basic cotton was the fabric choice and he simply made it out of a large square piece of fabric that we threw over his head and pined where he needed to sew. The lion, on the other hand, was a pattern we made up on the computer then printed it out on iron down paper. We then ironed it onto white fabric, cut it out, then glued it to the red tunic. Glue because any heat based attachment method would destroy the pattern and stitching would pucker it.

The other great thing about this shot is Lucy's dagger in comparison to Peter's sword. We had bought the play kit but was disappointed by the dagger that came with it so we made her a new blade.

Blades and armour can be made out of styrene and then painted with automotive paints in order to make them look like metals. Even though her dagger doesn't have the same deep sheen his sword does, people were very convinced that it was metal.

Note: If you decide to play with styrene for armor then you have to bend it. Styrene will bend under heated conditions but there are a few notes to be aware of.

If you use the oven. Do it slowly and gently. You can actually poke it and when the poke leaves an indent, it is ready. Other methods include heat based paint stripper guns.

Do not handle hot styrene with bare hands. Do not use your own body for a form. Use a wood frame with something like counter top sheeting. That stuff is flexable and can take the heat. Create your frame to shape and pull the counter top sheeting over it, screwing into place as you go. Take the heated styrene and gently place it on top, stroking it into place. Stay with it as it cools. You may have to stroke it back down as a sheet has a memory and may still want to stay straight.

Bend a sheet then carefully cut your shapes out of the bent sheet (or section of). If you cut the shapes first it will warp and stretch as you heat it and you will not have the excess material in order to fix it. It's not easy cutting on a curve but you'll have a greater chance of getting the right shape.
Paint it after you are done.

OR... Vac form. You can talk to your local hobby store or store display manufacturer about vac forming.

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Slideshow video: Peter



Peter's Play Clothes

Will

Peter's Play Clothes outfit was obtained from already owned clothing (light blue long sleve shirt, black shoes, and blue slack) and the suspenders from a local second hand shop.

Peter costume page


Edmund's Play Clothes

James

Edmund's Play Clothes outfit was obtained from already owned clothing (white shirt) and from a local second hand shops (shoes, blue sweater). Edmund's shorts were originally a long dress pair of GAP slacks mostly wool, some polyester that were cut off at the knee. His socks are Dockers and were purchased at JCPenny on sale.

Edmund costume page


Edmund's Tunic Armor

James

Edmund's Tunic Armor is a combination of his Auburn Tunic look and his Battle Armor. Edmund's undergarmet brown vest was hand sewn and mimics the one pictured on page 150 of the official movie companion. The pattern used was the Simplicity 5037 and the fabric came from Hancock Fabrics. The jeans, shoes, plastic helmet, and real sword all belong to the actor. The tabard fabric is also from Hancock's and the lion pattern came from NarniaWeb.

Edmund costume page


Peter's Tunic Armor

Will

Peter's Tunic Armor is a combination of his Auburn Tunic look and his Battle Armor. Peter's undergarmet brown vest was hand sewn and the picture on page 36 of the official movie companion was used as a visual pattern. The basics for the pattern came from the 5037 Simplicity pattern. The unique vinyl-like fabric came from Hancock Fabrics. We should have made this vest a little bigger because the vinyl fabric had no give at all! The jeans, blue cotton jean shirt, shoes, and belt all belonged to the actor. The sword was borrowed from our Edmund actor. The tabard fabric is also from Hancock's and the lion pattern came from NarniaWeb.

Peter costume page


Peter - Battle Armor

Jamie

On 10/31, people asked, "Who are you?" On 12/09 they said, "I know who you are!"

Most of the information for making the outfit came from www.narniaweb.com costume area.

We used the McCalls 3658 men's pattern and tried to size it down. The lion pattern came from the website.

We also made a green cloak that came from the concept art.

We made the shield from masonite and painted it silver. We bought the sword from a toy store. He really wanted the real sword (from MR) but, well, we just couldn't afford it :-).

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Peter's Sword and Shield

James

The sword is made from a piece of red oak I bought at lowes for about 5 dollars. I cut out the tang and tapered the blade to a point with a hand plane. The edges were made the same way with the hand plane. I cut a shaped a scrap piece of pine into a hand guard. The handle is wrapped half way with a maroon vinyl that i bought at hancock fabrics. The scabbard is made from a cardboard tube that they wrap wrapping paper around. I cut it in half and formed it around my sword. I taped it up a bit to keep it from falling apart. Then Icovered it with a tube I sewed from the same fabric I wrapped the handle with. I duct taped the chape and mouth to keep the fabric from moving and also as a decoration. The leather frog and belt were bought at the local Rennaissance fair.

The shield was made from 2 pieces of 5/8 inch ply wood and covered with sheet metal. The shield is slightly curved by using ropes tightened to make it curve. The shield is painted with the red lion from a pattern I found on this website. Most of the hardware on the back is hand made. The shoulder strap is made from a heavy brown upholstery fabric that is leather like also found at hancock fabrics. It is attached to the shield by buckles I made form a piece of sheet metal folded over a d-ring of which I made 2. The upper hand hand strap is 2 strips of leather and the lower one is the same fabric as the shoulder strap. The padding is about an inch of felt (because I use this in sword fights) covered in the marroon vinyl.

The method for curving a shield and many other useful things can be found here in a downloadable pdf file the file link is called Basic Armouring - A Practial Introduction to Armour Making.

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Sword, unsheathed
Scabbard
Sword and Shield
Sword and Shield
Back of Shield


Narnia Knight

Reverend Ron

This summer our church is hosting an event entitiled "The Knights of Narnia."

Here are photos of my armour and attire. The surcoat is made red cotton velvet and the lion is an applique of gold velvet. I custom made the helmet visor and trimmed it with brass rods that are soldered on with silver jewelry solder. I made a lion stencil for the shield and the design is engraved in the shield (Thank God for Dremel). I went with plate armour for my legs and different gauntlets. The rest of the armour is the spaulders (shoulders) and chainmail. Steel chainmail is more affordable but man is it heavy! All of my armour put together weighs 105 pounds.

When I put together this ensemble I went with the idea to blend historical and functional armour with the Narnia realm. Peter was the one who was "knighted" so the design of his surcoat or tabbard, with the point facing down, must be the standard for the knights of Narnia (Edmund had the point inverted for the archers). I'm quite pleased how everything turned out and I'm sure those who attend our event will enjoy it.

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