"It is such a very Narnian ship"

When I offered my cousins a costume gift at the end of last year the youngest requested Lucy’s outfit from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) . The outfit consists of a shirt, a tunic and pants. I must confess to having not seen the movie (partly because I'm a book purist, but mostly because I'm too attached to the old BBC series) so I did most of my research at this website.

The tunic and pants are decorated with painted gold curlicues. To get this effect I used stamps and gold fabric paint.

Because I only needed to use small sections of the stamps, I used a brush to get the paint on to the parts of the stamp I wanted to use. The straight lines I did freehand. I am very proud of myself for being satisfied with designs that are not exactly the same as those in the film. They still have the same effect on the outfit – and really no-one would notice unless they were closely comparing the two… which I invite you to do below:

The tunic pattern I drafted from my cousin’s measurements and, to my delight, it didn’t need any fitting alterations. Having now seen the whole outfit on, I do think it would be better if the tunic was a little longer, but it’s too late now and probably I’m the only person who will notice. 

Mum helped me make the pants pattern from a generic pants pattern that she had used for me when I was young. And by ‘mum helped me’ I mean mum did it while I sat nearby and hand-hemmed the tunic. The pants went together easily and fitted properly, so I suppose I‘m a step closer to being not-terrified of making pants.

The pants had to have pleats that could be clipped in place and could open out.

The shirt for this outfit is made completely out of rectangles of fabric – no pattern pieces required.  The collar and cuffs are knife pleated.

The tie is sewn on to the cuff, then loops around to tie on the outside of the cuff.

The collar pleating is decorated with cording on both sides.

I made Dorset buttons which I have never made before. The first one took me a little over an hour, but by the time I finished I had got the process down to 40 minutes.  

The buttons are made with thick sewing thread and a jewellery-making ring.

The collar doesn’t quite sit right, but I’m not sure what I could have done differently. Possibly it would have been better in a less stiff material. Overall, if I made this again there are a few things I would do differently but I am still very happy with how it turned out and so was my cousin.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader images owned by Disney and Walden Media.