Narnian Costumes: Part 1

Welcome back! Last time, I shared all the fun details about the Narnian Adventure Party my friend and I threw to celebrate our two boys turning one. Today, I’m going to dive into the details about the costumes!

To say these were fun to work on would be an understatement. For all my love of Narnia and dressing up as a child, I never actually owned a Narnia costume myself. I did go so far as to buy a pattern and some fabric for a Narnian inspired dress when I was about 13 or 14, but that never transpired. So truth be told, I’ve just been itching for the day my kids were old enough to enjoy something like this so I could live vicariously through them.

Since we’re all new here, let’s start off with a big disclaimer:

I like to sew outfits inspired by movie costumes. I very rarely go for an exact replica.

So if you’re looking for truly authentic cosplay, you’ll have to look somewhere else. I don’t have the time or money to spend in recreating the super fine details. Plus, I’m a big picture kind of gal anyway. And when you consider that 90% of the time I’m sewing for children, it just doesn’t make sense for me. For those of you who are truly authentic cosplayers: major respect and admiration. I’ll continue to drool over your photos on Instagram and Pinterest. It’s just not me. If I can capture the essence of something while saving my sanity, I’ll gladly do it.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the costumes!

Owen chose to be Peter for the party. I’ve had my eye on this particular outfit for awhile now so I was more than happy to attempt to recreate it.

For the shirt, I wanted a lightweight linen fabric instead of a heavier wool one like the picture. I wanted him to be comfortable and to be able to enjoy it in warmer weather. I ended up finding this really high quality linen/cotton chambray fabric on sale for $7. I just made a basic oversized shirt pattern based off of a revolutionary war era shirt I had made for him awhile back.

The tunic was made from a faux leather/vinyl fabric from Hobby Lobby for $12. I had planned to add leather stitching to the sleeves and and neckline, but time got away from me. Maybe one day…..

The belt was one we found at a thrift store. We spray painted the handle gold and used acrylic red paint for the belt itself.

Etta had to be Lucy. When I asked her months ago what costume she wanted, she was very emphatic about wanting “the fight dress.” Since she’s as girly as they come, I was a bit surprised she didn’t want the fancier coronation gown. I half expected her to change her mind but she never wavered. And I’m really glad she didn’t because every girl needs a dress she can rough and tumble in with the best of them.

I had difficulty finding fabric that was the right color for this. I initially tried dying some I had on hand, but that didn’t work. Nothing else was close enough. But then I ended up finding a curtain panel from Bargain Hunt for $7 that was the PERFECT shade and texture. I was ridiculously giddy!

I wasn’t brave enough to sew a princess seam dress without a pattern so I found a vintage girls’ one on Etsy for a few dollars. For the under sleeves and lining, I had this old sheet of mine which was also the perfect color and even had a bit of a sheen to it (Ok, so I do appreciate when things are an exact match. Just so long as they fit in my budget and aren’t too time-consuming).

When it came to the neck and sleeve detail, I toyed around with trying my hand at either hand or machine embroidery, but I quickly ruled that out in favor of the fastest and simplest option: fabric paint.

Now I know somewhere out there, there’s a Enneagram #1 inwardly screaming while looking at my haphazard painting. I could have been a lot more methodical with this. I knew it at the time, but was in a particularly “get things done” type of mood and just started scribbling. But it still works in a sort of clumsy way and my daughter thinks it’s beautiful, so that’s enough for me. We’re back to the big picture again, you see.

The belt was another thrift store find for .25. The buckle was already gold so all it needed was a few coats of the same acrylic paint we used for Owen’s. The dagger and bottle were both things we already had on hand, and the pouch and sheath were made from the leftover of Owen’s faux leather (again painted red with some gold cording added to it.) The cape was an easy project made from a tablecloth.

And now for the birthday boy himself! My first thought was for him to dress as Edmund for obvious reasons. But when I thought of his age and his size, I felt that particular costume might be a little underwhelming. In the end, I decided on Reepicheep (one of my favorite characters from Narnia) and I’m thinking this might rank up there as one of the best decisions of my parenting life!

This one was beautiful in its simplicity: just a basic tan romper from Amazon with a tail added to the back (some old copper wire covered in brown fabric.) I painted the belt like all the others and the headband was made from the leftover felt from his previous mouse costume. The sword and breastplate were both from Dollar Tree and were part of our party favors.

For Aaron, we went with something super basic since he’s not typically one to go for outlandish costumes. I tried my best to convince him that he would make an awesome centaur but it was to no avail. In the end, we settled on the Pevensie’s absent dad away in the war. He’s done some WW2 reenacting in the past so he wore that and and all I added was the red beret found of Ebay.

Next we’ll talk about the White Witch and the Beavers. I wasn’t personally involved with the making of these but they’ve each given me permission to go ahead and share:

When I first asked my parents to be the Beavers, I wasn’t quite sure how they were going to pull it off. It seemed kind of involved and was rather late in the game which meant there wasn’t a whole lot of time to spend on them. I told them I’d easily settle for painted faces or a mask if that was all that we could get. Boy, did they blow my expectations out of the water! My mom found not one, but two animal like costumes at two different Goodwills (one was originally a Chewbacca suit, and the other a Minotaur.) She bought some fake buck teeth at Walmart and cut some parts off to make them look like beaver teeth. She also made their masks out of foam using this template (she’s the real genius, I tell you.)

And lastly, we have the white witch played by my fabulous sister-in-law, Rebekah. Now if you knew her, you would know that she could not be more dissimilar to the character she was playing, but since she’s the only one of us with blond hair and fair skin, she got the job. And she NAILED it! Seriously, look at her!

Her dress was an icy blue bridesmaid dress she had from a wedding earlier in the year. She draped some white lace fabric over top of it and finished with this fuzzy gray sweater/cape found for .25 at a thrift store.

Her crown was made by hot gluing and wiring some icicle ornaments to a headband.

Then she topped it off with some amazing hair.

All of these costumes were under $20. And aside from Owen’s they were all either $10 or much less.

Now there’s actually still a few costumes left to share (one of which being the incredible one I got to wear), but for that, I’m going to pass it to my friend Hannah to share with you all very soon! She’s the one responsible for the truly spectacular (and authentic) costumes. So be sure to check back next week because you definitely won’t want to miss seeing her adorable boys as Tumnus and Edmund!