Judah's Hogwarts Robes

Our local area braced itself for "Snowmaggedon Round 2" this weekend. Yesterday I ran out to get a few groceries and the stores were packed with more people than they were a few days before Christmas. It was crazy, but I emerged safely with my milk, eggs and plenty of baking supplies - only for today to give us abundant rain, which is melting away the snow that was left from last weekend.

It's a quiet, wet, dreary kind of January day and I thought I'd take the opportunity to blog about Judah's Halloween costume since I've been re reading the Harry Potter books and am still so excited about how his costume came out!

This fall Judah turned 11 and during last year he asked for a Hogwarts costume for Halloween. He is starting to outgrow trick or treating (at least, he says he is. . .) but he is all down for dressing up in a not-too-weird outfit and walking around town with his friends. He didn't end up trick or treating a lot, but he had a good time hanging out with his buddies and came home with a little candy, at least. He really enjoyed wearing his outfit and I think it will fit again for next year. (But really, who knows? He is growing SO fast right now!)

I was so excited to make this for him since he is the perfect age for starting at Hogwarts and it's rare that he actually will wear anything I make for him, and even more rare for him to specifically request that I make anything for him. While I ended up only having to sew the robe, it was fun to pull together the various pieces and see the final look. He looked absolutely awesome, if I do say so myself!

I found Rebel's Haven to be extremely helpful in identifying the different elements that go into a Hogwarts uniform, and the variations in color and trim and style and how they change over the years. For the actual robe, I used the free Burda Style tutorial, which has the hood cut in one with the body of the robe. There is a little weirdness with the drape of the hood when it is down (I think the seam from the back neck to the point of the hood needs to be longer) but it worked well enough for a Halloween costume.

I used mystery black fabric from Wal Mart for the robe since I wanted to make this as inexpensively as possible. I lined the hood and faced the sleeves and the front opening with dark red cotton. The Gryffindor house badge was purchased on eBay, and came with the deathly hallows necklace that Judah is wearing in the pictures (all in an adorable red velvet drawstring pouch, with a few extra patches AND wizard cards!). His khakis are his modern dress pants and I bought a white button up shirt at Goodwill and a grey sweater (it's a womans sweater, but I could find no V neck grey sweaters in the mens section) and ordered a tie from eBay. The tie is kinda cheap and I had to resew it since the stitches pulled out very easily, but it looks good! Judah finished off his outfit with lace up leather dress shoes, that he despises and has not worn since. 😂

I carved his wand one warm autumn Sunday morning, sitting on the back deck with a pocket knife and a stick from one of our own trees. I ended up with insane blisters but the finished wand was ok (the next few were better). We stained the wand and put on a few clear gloss coats and it was good to go!

I made witch robes to go along with Judah's outfit because, really, who can resist the opportunity to make and wear something like that? I fully enjoyed going out as Judah's Mom. 😁 I'll have a post about my costume soon - it was so much fun to make! I love seeing Judah's enjoyment of HP and knowing he loves something that I too love so much! May we never grow too old for a little bit of magic.

Much love,

Sarah