Cloaks But No Daggers

Little did I know that when I found Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader as a DVD Blue-Ray combo at Costco for super cheap that I would later give my youngest an idea for her Halloween costume. I bought the movie because my girls hadn't seen it and I thought the series might be something they would like. I made them watch the first two before we started Dawn Treader, but they liked it so much that by Prince Caspian, my daughter had decided to be not a dog for Halloween, but Lucy Pevensie. She picked her outfit from Prince Caspian over the ones in Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe because it was prettier, she said. To make this dress, I actually used a pattern I had bought in case I was going to make a costume for my oldest, and modified the pieces so that it would look like Lucy's dress in the film. I couldn't find any fabric in the rusty-orange color that my daughter would let anywhere near her skin. I wound up choosing a dark red knit interlock fabric which I think is close enough, comfortable, and warm. The bodice doesn't have the same design as the fabric in the movie, but I went to the home decor  section and found one that at least was the same colors. I also lined it in cotton lawn, my fabric of choice for keeping the evils of itchy fabric at bay. The blue satin underskirt is just that, while that blue-polka dotted material is just a shirt she's wearing under the costume to keep warm. I thought about putting some blue satin around the neckline, like an undershift showing through, like there is in the movie, but I knew she would never wear the costume if I did that.
I found a very helpful website online that dissected Lucy's costume and using that as a guide was able to pick out lots of trim (hand-stitched) and to figure out what kind of pleats and tucks went where.

Then for the back, I got out the hammer and put some eyelets in the back instead of a zipper. The result is quite breathtaking in person, even if it's not 100% accurate.

Then, to keep her warm, I found some grey faux suede and cut her a cloak. In the film Lucy's cloak is edged with a velvet trim, which of course I couldn't find, so I just let my youngest pick out whichever one she like best that wouldn't clash too much with the dress.

 I think she made a good choice. I let her pick a clasp for the cloak too, so she chose one which she said "Looked kind of like Aslan's lion head in the movie". I wished I'd had time to get her a little brown belt and a play dagger, but I ran out of time to go searching for something like that.

This year for Halloween I offered my oldest the choice between me buying her costume or making her one. She wanted to be Merida from the Pixar film "Brave", and was seduced by all the flashy colors of the store-bought version. I told her that I could make her one that would look exactly like the one from the film, and be more comfortable besides, but it would take time. The store version won out. End of story? Hardly. In anticipation of a cool Halloween evening, she asked if I would make her a cloak like Merida wears in the movie so that she would have to wear her good ol' puffy coat or a sweater over her costume. I agreed, and put that project to one side later as I worked on lots of other things which will be discussed in later posts. Finally, with just a few days to go before Halloween, we found out the weather was not going to be just chilly but downright insane for children to walk around the streets at night. In a panic, I took my daughter to Joann's where I let her pick out some flannel. Instead of the solid color I originally had in mind, we picked a blue and green plaid similar to the tartan worn by some in the movie.

I cut her cloak in a semi-circle shape, using her measurements for a guide. Then I cut another piece, of the same brown suede-like material, to interline the cloak with. Finally, I cut a third piece out of the flannel to line it with. After I basted the interlining to the outside, then stitched those to the flannel lining, I had a seriously heavy-duty cloak on my hands. But she wanted a hood to, since Merida's cloak has a hood. Using the last scraps I had, I made a hood and lined it with just the flannel. Even with only two layers, that thing was so thick I had to sew it by hand to the cloak because it wouldn't fit in my sewing machine. Then I just sewed on a silver clasp my daughter picked out and I was done! It took me the day and a half before Halloween to do, if you don't count petty disturbances like school and chores and dance classes.

Luckily for us it wound up not being 34 degrees and she was actually hot in it after a while, so she gave it to her sister to warm up in for a little while.

Here she is in her full get-up. Ignore the blue pants and pink turtleneck. We really thought it was going to be really cold. My only regret is that she forgot her bow and arrows, but she told me she didn't want to carry them if she couldn't shoot them.