Read
the final book in JK Rowling's phenomenal series : Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Visit
the Harry
Potter Fun & Games Headquarters on Squidoo for tons of great
ideas for Harry Potter themed parties, games, costumes, and toys.
Make cool Harry Potter accessories as costumes for
the final midnight book launch in July at your local bookstore, or as gifts for the children in your
family. If you sew, you can easily make cloaks and tunics, knitters can make scarves or knitted tunics, embroiderers can have great fun with the Hogwarts house badges, and if you enjoy crafts you can make hats, wands, broomsticks, and even a “mad eye”.
Wands
Find a fairly straight stick, with one or two knots for effect, and sand it well with fine sandpaper. Stain with dark wood stain and add some silver paint to the tip if you wish. Varnish and allow to dry according to the manufacturer’s instructions. You may want to sand down the dried varnish with an ultra-fine sandpaper and add a second and third layer of varnish to give an extra gleam and polish to the wand.
Broomsticks
Either use an old millet broom or make your own using a long, thick stick and a bunch of twigs. Sand, stain, and varnish the broom as with the wands, and paint “Firebolt” on the side in silver.
Hats
Remember the witches’ hats you made for Halloween? The tips for making fabric hats are towards the end of
this article.
Mad-Eye Moody’s mad eye
See Mad-Eye Moody here
Warner Bros have made this one easy for us – use an old watch strap, extended with elastic to fit over the head if needed, paint an eye on a polystyrene or plastic half-ball (or buy a realistic eye from a joke shop) and glue to the watch-face.
House badges
You will need a house badge for the cloaks and tunics. These are worn on the left hand side of the chest. You can make the badge as simple or as fancy as you are able – from a golden “G” on red for Gryffindor, bronze “R” on blue for Ravenclaw, silver “S” on green for Slytherin, or black “H” on golden-yellow for Hufflepuff, to a detailed lion, eagle, snake, or badger with the appropriate background colour.
See some badge
examples here
Cloaks
Use a piece of black sheeting and an equal sized sheet of the house-colour you wish to make the cloak for – red for Gryffindor; gold/yellow for Hufflepuff; blue for Ravenclaw; green for Slytherin. Sew three sides together inside out. To make it quicker and easier to sew the final side, turn the right way out and sew the final side and glue or sew a black or matching coloured ribbon folded over the raw edge to hide it. This is the bottom edge.
Optional hood: Sew two smaller squares of black and coloured fabric together. Fold in half with the colour outside, and sew across the top. Glue matching ribbon over the seam to hide it as this will show when the hood is down. Glue or sew black ribbon around the outer raw edge of the hood to neaten it. Attach the hood to the cloak and arrange so that the cloak has some slack at the shoulders.
Sew four or five buttons down the front of the chest area and sew a corresponding loop of ribbon on the other side. Glue or sew the appropriate house badge on the left side of the chest.
Hogwarts House Tunics
See the tunic
design here
The Hogwarts house tunics are long sleeved
and bi-coloured according to the house colour: red for Gryffindor;
gold/yellow for Hufflepuff; blue for Ravenclaw; green for Slytherin.
The right side of the tunic body is the
house colour while the left is black with the Hogwarts
house badge on the chest. The sleeves are the opposite colour to the
body - the left arm is coloured and the right is black.
You will need approximately 1.5m in length
of coloured fabric and 1.5m of black fabric, depending on width. Enough
matching coloured ribbon to go around the neck, wrists, and bottom seams.
Find a long-sleeved top or a t-shirt that
already fits.
Trace around this top onto a large sheet of
newspaper. Extend the length if you want a full tunic.
Cut out your pattern. Cut the pattern in
half down the middle, and cut the sleeves off.
Lay one piece of fabric on top of the other
and pin together in several places.
Arrange and pin all your pattern pieces to
your combined fabric square.
Leave a space of about half an inch on all
sides as you cut around the newspaper pattern pieces. This extra space
will be used when the pieces are sewn together.
Match up the fabric pieces inside out:
Front: place the right-hand-side
coloured piece against the left-hand-side black piece (wrong sides of
both fabric facing outwards). Sew these two pieces together down the
middle.
Back: place the left-hand-side
coloured piece against the right-hand-side black piece (wrong sides out).
Sew these two pieces together down the middle.
Join: sew each of the shoulders of
the front piece to the shoulders of the back piece, leaving a hole for
the head.
Sleeves: place the two coloured
sleeves together (wrong sides out). Sew together along the top of the arm
only. Repeat with the black sleeves.
Attach the sleeves to the body:
Lay the body out flat with the right side of
the fabric facing upwards. Lay the right side of the sleeve over the body
and fit the arm-hole of the sleeve to the arm-hole of the body. Pin
together and sew. Repeat with the other sleeve.
Making up the tunic:
Fold the tunic over again at the shoulders,
so that the wrong sides of the fabric are facing outwards. Pin and sew
the tunic together all the way from the wrist of the sleeve, up the arm,
and down the side of the body.
Finishing off:
Sew or glue ribbon around the raw edges of
the neck-hole, wrists, and bottom edge.
Hogwarts House Scarves
See the scarves here
Scarves are also bi-coloured: large red stripes and thinner golden-yellow stripes for Gryffindor; large blue, thin bronze for Ravenclaw; large green, thin silver-grey for Slytherin; and large yellow, thin black for Hufflepuff.
copyright © Elsa Neal 2005-2007 (Please contact the
for permission to reprint this article.)
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