"Eat dung, Umbridge!"
I've adored Harry Potter for some years now (since OotP came out and I got hooked) and finally wanted to attend my local Borders party for the
release of HBP. I'd never made a robe quite like this before...and since I prefer the robe style depicted in the first 2 movies, I went with that design.
I always imagined that it would be fun to be in Gryffindor House as well. Part of this costume debuted at Halloween 2003, when I was a naughty Gryffindor student..heehee!
I got quite a few compliments on this costume at the party...considering I was the oldest person dessed up, I was quite flattered!
School Uniform
The only part of this that involved sewing was the sweater. I purchased a gray sweater off eBay and added scarlet and gold ribbon to the neckline. This makes it pretty hard to pull the
sweater on (I have a big head), especially with a wig on. I know both the cuffs and the waistline of the sweater also have colored trim, however since you never see those parts of the outfit, I
didn't bother adding trim there. I'll eventually buy one of the really nice knitted sweaters that they sell on the internet now.
The other parts of the uniform were either purchased, or I already had something that would work. I bought the gray skirt from a uniform company...I went for a kickpleated skirt since I abhor
knife pleats and I always imagined kickpleats anyways. The gray kneesocks were purchased online, as was the tie (it's the same as they used in the first 2 movies). I already had a white collared shirt
as well as the high-heeled loafers (since I'm so short)!
School Robes
When I started this project I was fortunate to come across some lovely gabardine that draped wonderfully and had a subtle digonal stripe woven into it. There wasn't much left, but I bought the rest of the bolt, hoping it would be
enough. I got soooo lucky! I actually had some left over, which was great.
The problem with doing the robes was selecting a good pattern. I had picked up Simplicity 5840 on sale, thinking it looked pretty good.
It had also been recommended over at Madam Malkin's costuming site. However, this pattern needed serious redrafting. It has a yoke, which I needed to get rid of
in order to make the robes look as they should. this involved cutting the yoke into 2 pieces along where a shoulder seam would be and adding seam allowances to both pieces. Then each yoke piece was alternately pinned to the front/back panel pattern piece
in order to have full front and back panels with only shoulder seams. Tedious! I also made the sleeves slightly fuller by
flaring the sleeve pattern at the end. Other than that, sewing this robe was super easy! I did the majority of the body in an afternoon.
I chose not to have a hood on my robes, since J.K. never mentions one being there in the books. Instead I went for the "scholarly collar" approach...it looks like a hood but is more like what PhD students wear when they graduate.
This collar took some planning...I had some help from Madam Malkin's on this. I cut 2 oval shaped pieces of fabric longer than my neckline measurement, sewed them together
and topstitched them. I pinned the ends to the edges of the neckline, took in 3 pleats on each side to fit, and sewed the collar to the body. I then had to handsew the underside of the collar to the neckline. The result looked pretty
much how I wanted...I pressed the pleats and it looked even better.
For the accents, I handstitched the 2 frog closures at the chest (they have the same general shape as the movie closures) and a die-cut Gryffindor patch onto the right chest
Accessories
Prefect Badge: This was real find! It's an actual prefect badge from England conveniently in Gryffindor colors. I'd eventually like to make one that
looks like the book version of the prefect badge (a silver badge with a red P over a lion).
Wand: I don't have my own wand yet, but I had heard that some people have used dark-stained wood chopsticks as a pretty good substitute! Fortunately we had some in the house, so Susie and I both had wands
for the party (she was in her Malfoy shirt). We had fun trying to hex each other around the rows of books!
The Wig
I really think redheads DO have more fun! I originally bought this wig for another costume, but I thought it went nicely with this one also. I kept waiting for someone to ask me if I was Ginny. If anything I'd say I was Lily. I think I
bought this wig from TartBlossom's website quite some time ago.
Last updated July 19, 2005.
