I suggested to my girlfriend a few months ago that we should dress up for Hallowe’en. I’d had the idea for ages to dress up as Hogwarts students. I saw some excellent house patches at the Fan Expo convention this summer and picked them up, “just in case.” These were the foundation of our costumes and got the ball rolling.
My girlfriend purchased a sewing machine a few years ago with the intention of teaching herself how to sew; it’s been sitting brand new in its box ever since. The Harry Potter costume project inspired her to break out the brand new machine. We visited the Fabricland store, conveniently across the road from where I live, and picked out a suitable pattern for a hooded cloak and black fabric. Apparently October is a great time to start a sewing project as they had fantastic sales on their high quality “suiting” fabrics: buy 1m and get 2m free — effectively a 66% discount.
My girlfriend worked very hard over the last two weeks to make the cloaks, and I have to say they came out great. She made mine first and used the experience to make improvements to her own — the pattern has huge sleeves that are great for a grim reaper or Nazgul costume but unnecessary for a Hogwarts student. She was also able to save some fabric by cutting the cloak shorter.
I had intended to get ties that match those that the students wear in the movies; a simple college-stripe tie in the house colours. We were going for the costume look in Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets; the school uniforms change significantly (along with many other details) in Prisoner of Azkaban. I admittedly thought it would be a lot easier to find simple ties, but after searching nearly every men’s clothing store in Toronto came up with very little. A store across the road from home happened to have a $10-$20 tie sale, and I ended up procuring ties that matched the house patches perfectly for colours.
All in all we had a fun night last night. We should all wear cloaks as regular clothes, it’s a lot of fun. I’m trying to come up with an excuse to wear our cloaks again. Any ideas?
In the spirit of our experience, it seems appropriate to share this link. Enjoy.
© 2009 talkinghead.ca
Another Talking Head 
Oh, is this why you’re interested in RenFest? So you could make more use of your costume?
I have to admit the costumes are really cool and I’m totally looking forward to another excuse — any excuse — to bust them out again. But no, I hadn’t thought of that.