theladyrebecca | Entries tagged with harry potter

On Saturday, I participated in Geeks Who Drink's annual-ish Harry Potter Trivia event in Seattle. They do it about once every 1-1.5 or so years, and I think I've done it at least 4-5 times, and it's awesome. I consider myself a Harry Potter expert, so it's always fun to put my knowledge to the test. In the past, I think the best we've done is maybe 4th or 5th place. But this year, we won 1st place!!

There were six of us on the team, and all of us dressed up. Three of the team were students, one dressed as Dobby, one as a young Molly Weasley, and I went as Professor Trelawney. I assembled my outfit the week before from the thrift store, purchasing two skirts, a long tunic-y blouse, a sleeveless sweater, a scarf, and a pair of round glasses (from online). I decided the day of to cut down a pair of boots I had that were falling apart, so I cut the leg off at the ankle. I paired all that with long scrunchy grey socks, and a whole bunch of jewelry. It works out well that Trelawney is a Ravenclaw, because I was able to pull out my Ravenclaw necklace to go with all the others. I thought my outfit was completely on point, but alas, I didn't win the costume contest. Luckily, that went to our Molly Weasley, so our table got to have the jello shots (the costume prize) anyway.

We had a ton of fun, and for winning first place, we got $314 and won the most awesome Sorting Hat cake, made by one of the Quizmasters!

Here's some pictures:

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/287040.html

I haven't sewn anything since my last post, but I realized I never posted about two recent costuming events.

On Friday Jan 12th, my friend Rachel and I donned our Hogwarts uniforms and went to go see this huge Diagon Alley setup that a guy in Ballard had built in his yard. It's been open since Halloween, but I hadn't had a chance to go yet. It was awesome!

Next post: Jan 13th Victorian Outing

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/265303.html

Another week between posts. I think between picture posting being difficult, and my not really sewing anything that interesting, I feel like I have nothing really to post.

Anyway, I finished the Halloween skirt I think on Wed of last week. Then I had an etsy order for two Anna playdresses come in, so I made those, and by the time I had finished them, I had another etsy order for a Harry Potter skirt, so I made that. Those have all been shipped off now, and once I finished them, it was back to the bodice commission. I have the jacket all cut out in the velvet, but needed to pick up more satin for the lining, which I did yesterday. I'm hoping between work, grocery shopping, and rehearsal this evening, I'll have time to get the satin cut out, and maybe even to flatline everything. Once this jacket is assembled, I am going to cut out and assemble a mockup of the sleeves, and do the alterations to the other jacket. Assuming that all goes smoothly this week, I have another fitting with my client on Sunday.

I've decided I should probably hold off on the Regency dress until I finish this commission, so that I know what I actually have time for. I'm also torn, because the blood red silk I had in mind is actually almost five yards, which is probably way more yardage than I need for a Regency dress. It's also so gorgeous that I feel like it's saying it wants to be a bustle gown, but it's totally not enough to make a full bustle gown out of... But it's so pretty!

Picture dump! My Halloween skirt, the Harry Potter skirt (I'm tempted to make one for myself out of this fabric, even though it's Gryffindor, and I'm a Ravenclaw), and my awesomely awkward puppy trying on Halloween costumes.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/254116.html

I spent all the sewing time I had this week working on caroling stuff. I was able to finish almost everything by tonight's rehearsal. I think I have about an hour left to go on the last piece, which is redoing a skirt waistband. All of what I've done just feels so fiddly, though, since it's pretty much all repairs and alterations. And resetting everyone's waistbands, since all of the skirts were pulling out from the waistbands all over. Sigh. I just want to get back to sewing for me!

So anyway, I'll finish the last waistband tomorrow, re-dye my hair, and then maybe I'll still find time to do corset mockup 2.5. The busk and grommets haven't arrived yet anyway, so I guess my consolation is that I really couldn't have done anything more than the mockup yet anyway. But I really want this mockup to work, because my goal is to have it done by Friday or Saturday. That way, I can wear this for our caroling gigs (which start Sunday), and have time on Saturday to do any alterations to my Ravenclaw bodice based on the new corset. My old corset is falling apart. Plus, once I finish the corset, I can finally start on the green wool bustle gown! I'd love to have it done while we're still in the midst of caroling season, so I can test it out by wearing it to gigs. Not to mention that I really need to do the skating gown and outerwear before the Little House party, so I really need to get on all that.

I did take some time out of my sewing this week to see Fantastic Beasts on opening night. I liked the movie overall, though was hugely disappointed that they cast Johnny Depp as Grindelwald. I am so sick of him, and he's already confirmed for the next movie, too. I'm intrigued to see where these movies go, since there's supposed to be five total. I dressed up to see the movie - I don't have any 1920s stuff, so I wore my Miss Pettigrew 30s outfit, with my vintage 60s coat, and did some super fast 20s-ish hair. I also brought my wand, owl, and Harry Potter blanket (it's recliner seating). I think it worked. I was the only one there dressed up, anyway.

I had my limited class with Luca first thing on Saturday, The Boned Seams of Bodices. Such an informative class! I wish we had had more time, to fully finish our samples, but I think I got enough to be able to implement it all on my own. And I can't wait to order German plastic boning and actually start boning my bodices. I almost never do! And actually, the only other class I went to on Saturday was Luca's lecture on creating a Worth ballgown. I decided I wanted a break instead.

I wore my 1890s walking dress during the day. It's already very much feeling like a "this old thing" since I made it last Aug, and have already worn it a few times. I didn't even think to take a picture, but Vivien did! I hated my hair, though - I'm honestly not sure what happened there...

I also "this old thing"ed it for the gala, pulling out my black silk bustle gown I made earlier this year, though this time, I let down the train for a while, since CoCo'ers are the only people I trust around a train. :) And hey, it's nice knowing that a gown is going to fit, and not have any issues with hair etc, because I've done it before!

There was a great group of around 25 of us who walked over to Maggianos, and though the service was a little slower than normal this year, it is still a billion times better than eating the overpriced stuff they serve at the gala. We also had plenty of time to brainstorm what we wanted to do as a group project for next year! (Fair warning, I'm probably going to spam post about our Keira Knopely group a fair amount this year.) When we came back, we peeked in on the dancing and stuff, but mostly I just chatted, since as usual, I didn't like the music. Some year I'd really love to hear legit ball music, and have Regency dancing or waltzing or something for the majority of the dances. Pop music just doesn't make sense.

Anyway, my pics from dinner are all dark and blurry because my phone camera sucks, so instead of posting them here, feel free to follow this link to see them: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.954427004153&type=1&l=7e02c68062

There were so many gorgeous gowns this year! As I think I said before, though, I was really bad about taking pictures this year, so I only got a few of them. But I really feel like there's starting to be so many gorgeous costumes that I almost stop seeing half of them, because all the goregousness blends in together!

Anyway, we couldn't stay at the gala for too long, because we had to scoot out to the midnight release of the new Harry Potter play! It made for a very late night, but everyone at Barnes and Noble seemed to enjoy our costumes, and we did get our books!

I had so much fun this weekend at my Harry Potter marathon. I had one friend stick it out with me the entire time, which was awesome, and three others (inlcuding

vanessa_lynne) came for some but not all of the movies. We started about 9:30am yesterday, went to around midnight, and then started again around 11:30ish today and finished around 3pm. 19.5 hours of Harry Potter total!

We crafted during the first few movies, making a Ravenclaw banner, chocolate frog boxes (my friend made chocolate frogs that we stuck in the boxes!), and Bertie Botts boxes (which we filled with regular jelly beans). We also built a lego fortress. And we had a ton of awesome food, inlcuding butterbeer cupcakes, regular butterbeer, alcoholic butterbeer, and tea, of course. :) I also made Ryder a 3 minute Dobby costume, which was adorable!

Here's some pictures.

Tea day 1, and tea day 2

We brought out the diadem for Deathly Hallows, and Ryder wore his costume both days.

His costume didn't phase him at all. And Laura and I both wore Ravenclaw uniforms on day 1. On day 2, I wore my new HP skirt.

My friend Laura, and her awesome chocolate frogs!

Our banner craft, and the crafts in progress

And then tonight I dyed my hair for the show (it's so dark brown it's almost black, which is both exciting and scary), and I'm about to go finish the last 20-30 mins of sewing on Princess Sofia.

Yesterday I made two more samples. I did a Harry Potter print elastic waist adult-size skirt with pockets, and a size 2T Snow White dress. Both went together nice and easily, and I love how comfy the skirt is. I'm definitely doing all my etsy skirts this way - they look really cute, you don't have to worry about zippers getting stuck (which the one on the fitted waistband sample seems to want to do all the time), and there's a little more flexibility in fit. And the baby Snow is adorable.

Now I just really need to find models for all my kids stuff! I met with a potential model for Ariel today, but the dress was too big. I think I'm going to make the rest of my samples in size 6 (Snow is 2, Ariel is 8), because it seems like there's more kids around that are that size. But I'm meeting with more kids on Wed (Thanks, Alise!) so hopefully they will work for more of the dresses. I'd love to have as many as possible done by then. I started cutting out a size 6 Elsa today, and I think Rapunzel will be next up. I did already put the crappy "pinned to my adult size dressform" pictures on etsy, because I figure something is better than nothing, though. You can see those here: Ariel, Snow White, Adult skirt.

Once I finish all the samples, it will be back to historical sewing, onto my Victorian child outfit for CoCo. Too bad it's not as quick and easy to make as these kid dresses!

Last week, before I went into "make all the things" mode for Port Townsend, I did actually start sewing on Trelawney. All I did was the side seams of the robe, though, before pushing it aside. Figuring that enough time had passed since I bought the cotton for the dress from Joanns, I went back yesterday to see if they had gotten any more in. Nope! They did say that another store has it, but it's about 35 mins away, up by my bf's house, so I'll wait till I go visit him this weekend to pick some up.

Of course, all that means I needed to start on another project. Since I still haven't found my white with black windowpane for my 1830s bathing suit, I'm starting on my Little Red from Into the Woods movie repro. I love her costume! I realized, when I went to buy the fabric for the cloak yesterday, that I really need to wait for my boots to get here, so that I can make sure the fabric matches. So I bought the blue cotton for her dress. In the super-close-up movie stills, it looks like there is a layer of organza over the cotton, which is then incorporated into the tucks on her skirt. But all of that sounds like a total nightmare, so I am forgoing the organza.

One thing I'm trying to figure out, though, is how to punch fabric. The edges of her cloak have a floral design punched out, but I don't think paper punches would work on fabric. I'm almost certainly going with a microsuede for the fabric, either the home dec or garment variety. Does microsuede fray?

I also realized that oddly enough, I feel like I don't have that much to make before Costume College. Assuming that I wear both 1830s dresses and Miss Pettigrew, that really only leaves me time to wear three other things, which apparently are Little Red, Trelawney, and the 1830s bathing suit. But it also makes me feel like I'm not bringing much that's big and fancy, except the 1830s. I had kind of been thinking I was making the Daniel Deronda riding habit for CosCol, too, but then I don't know when I could wear it! And naturally, the only one I'm not liking so far is Trelawney, but that's for a group costuming thing, so it's the only one I can't scrap. Sigh.

I saw Cinderella today! It had lovely costumes, though they were such a random range of styles - everything from 18th c livery to 1950s sweaters. Still very pretty, though.

After Cinderella, I picked up some cotton to start on my artistic reform Professor Trelawney for the CosCol Ice Cream Social. Unfortunately, I don't think I got enough, but maybe I can make it work! I'm going to do a smocked dress with a sleeveless hooded over-robe. With the amount of fabric I have currently, I would only be able to do two widths (so like about 80-90") - is that enough if I want to do all that smocking? I had originally thought three panels would be best. But that means I have to keep my fingers crossed that the next time Joanns gets the cotton in, the dye lot will be the same.

These are my two favorite inspiration pieces for the dress: I'm definitely doing sleeves similar to those on the blouse, but I think the waist and neckline will be a little closer to the dress.

I've decided to make the robe out of some drapes I picked up at a garage sale. They're purple-shot mauve, with little flowers embroidered on them. Pretty sure they're all poly, but since this is a more costumey costume, I don't really care. Here's a couple pics of the fabrics draped on Antoinette: The color of the green is more mossy, like what's near the hem or neckline, and the color truest to the mauve on here is the fabric on the left side of the first pic.

I really haven't been doing much sewing, but this is what I've been working on for the last week: Last night was the Seattle night for the Geeks Who Drink "Geeky Cauldron," which was an all-Harry Potter themed pub-type quiz. Naturally, I attended in costume. I reworked my old costume (I used to dress up as Hermione) to turn it into Ravenclaw, and also spent a lot of time studying. The robe and skirt I made way way back when (two of my first sewing projects ever). I crocheted the scarf (a couple yrs ago, but I didn't finish it until Monday), painted the silvery stripes on the tie, painted the patch completely freehand, and sewed the new patch on. Of course, then it was too hot in the bar to actually wear the robes... Oh well! We officially came in in 8th place, but really, we tied for 6th.