I made Gryffindor student robes in the new style to wear to the first evening screening of 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' at my local cinema.
December 2004
I've since improved upon my original pattern, when I made a set of robes for someone else. See the photos below:
June 2004
Robes
I made my robes using a discontinued Simplicity kids robe pattern as a base. I made them fully lined with two different fabrics. The photos below show a few details on the robes in the film. You can see in all four photos that there appears to be a black lining on the insides, and that the coloured fabric that we see is only facings on the front, in the hood, and on the inside of the sleeves. The front facing seems to come in about 15 cm (6 inches). I also made mine with no seam around the front of the neckline. It took a little experimenting to get it right, but I'm really happy with how it looks. The clasp is two buttons and some black hat elastic sewn into one of the front seams. I bought the patch online from Patch Palace.
Skirt
I drafted the skirt from scratch. It's the first project I have ever drafted completely, and it was easy and went surprisingly smoothly. I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's a wrap skirt with two pleats on the front. In this photo, you can't really tell where it overlaps, but I made it based on the two photos below. I haven't attached the button on the top yet, though I may buy a darker wool to re-make it anyway. This was just a practice run.
How I made my skirt
Surprisingly, it only took me a couple of hours to make my skirt. It went together very smoothly.
The first step was to take a few measurements. I measured my waist, my hips and the length from my waist to my knees. My waist was 70 cm, my hips were 88 cm, and the length from my waist to my knees was 50 cm. I then proceeded with my practice version, before I started cutting into my good fabric. The piece I cut first was the back. It looked like this:
The top measures 38 cm, and the bottom measures 57 cm. I made it slightly larger to take into account the side seams, and besides, it was better to have it slightly baggy than too tight.The length was 50 cm. Once I was happy with that general shape, I moved onto drafting the front pieces. To do this, I laid out the back piece on another piece of fabric. In the pic below, I have gone around the edge of the back piece with white chalk. The excess to the left is how much I added on to the front pieces. This was to allow for the overlapping, and the pleats in the front. The short chalk lines along the top are the markers for the pleats. The first on the right is for the seam allowance, then there are 6 more, each 5 cm apart. The top of this piece measures 56 cm and the bottom is 65 cm.
After I had these pieces all cut out, I then marked the sections that need to be folded in. I carefully laid out my fabric with the right sides up, and folded the fabric inwards to make a pleat. I then pinned them into place, and pressed them with the iron set to steam. I then serged the top all together, so that the pleats would stay in place.
Next, I sewed the sides together. After that, I drafted the waistband, which was 1 metre long, and 10 cm wide. It was too long, but it didn't matter, as I cut off the excess afterwards. I also cut a piece of interfacing to the same size, and ironed it on to the back. I then attached the waistband. I finished off the hem, and gave it anothe press to keep the pleats in place. I plan to make another version of the skirt sometime with better fabric. This was rushed, and I am not completely happy with it. When I make the next one, I'll write a more detailed tutorial.
Shirt
I already had a shirt which I thought would work well.
Stockings & Shoes
I already had some black opaque stockings, and mary jane style shoes.
Tie
Purchased online from Wizard Ties. It's absolutely gorgeous, and excellent quality, and I just loved how it was packaged in brown paper and tied with string!
Wand
I made a wand out of a pine dowel, using a knife and a lot of sandpaper. I would love to have stained and finished it off, but I ran out of time. For next time, I'd like to either buy one already made or borrow a friend's wood turning lathe.
