Commercial Pattern: Simplicity 8723
Working Time: 8 Hours
Materials:
Black Poplin Fabric, 5m
Green Cotton Fabric, 3m
Buttons, 2x
Accessories:
Slytherin Patch (Etsy): 8,95 Euros
These are available for any other house or with the Hogwarts crest.
Total Cost: 86,94 Euros
Hogwarts Robe Pattern & Materials
If you’ve ever looked at Hogwarts robes online, you will know they come in only two varieties: cheap and ugly or extremely expensive. For a children’s birthday party or Halloween, you can absolutely get away with the 10 Euros version from Wish – the colours aren’t entirely accurate and most patches look a bit weird, but they’re recognisable, sturdy and will probably get dirty anyway. But if you’re a cosplayer or you’re looking for something special and you don’t really want to spend 120 Euros on the licensed product, you can save quite a bit of money by making your own. If you choose cheaper fabric than I did (the green cotton was pricey), you can probably save even more. And the best part? You can choose your own house.
Now, I’m 100% Slytherin, so I knew what Hogwarts robe I was going to make for myself. I’d like to point out that I’m not evil, but I’m quite resourceful, I am very determined (stubborn) and also quite competitive. If I wasn’t any of those things, my hobby would not be sewing. I wanted a sturdy, non-shiny fabric, so I opted for cotton and poplin and I chose the most magnificent shade of green. I love green a lot, so I’m a little biased, but I do love looking at this colour a lot. Luckily, there is also a commercial pattern (Simplicity 8723) available for Hogwarts robes – and it comes in child, teen and adult sizing. You can really outfit the entire family with this (except maybe your newborn and why would you?)
How To Make Your Own Hogwarts Robe
To process of making your Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor or Slytherin robe is really quite simple. Though the pattern says the difficulty is “medium”, I found that the most challenging parts are the pockets and the hood, but if you’re a beginner and determined to sew your own Hogwarts school uniform, I’m sure that you can make it work. Simplicity always comes with the bare minimum of instructions, but for the main part of the robe, these are quite easy to follow. You can’t even mess up the size of the robe because they’re meant to be loose and oversized, so this really is a one-size-fits-most situation.
I started by cutting out all the pieces and making them all neat and pretty using my overlock machine. Then, I immediately went on to put the base of the Hogwarts robe together. As I’ve mentioned before, I never encountered a pattern I didn’t have to alter and it would be a shame if this one proved to be perfect: it’s not. The Simplicity pattern didn’t use the house colour as lining for the sleeves, so if you want the inside of your sleeve to be in Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor or Slytherin colours, you just have to cut out two more sleeves from the lining fabric. Once you’ve done that, you can also attach the sleeves to your Hogwarts robe.
I admit, I messed up one of the pockets at the first attempt, but hey – that’s why this pattern is classified as “medium” difficulty, right? Once I had corrected this little blunder, on to the hood I went. And cried. Seriously, the most difficult part of the entire robe was the hood as the Simplicity (the name is sheer irony) instructions were marvellously vague on this. I don’t know how often I turned the pieces over, pinned them together, took them apart, pinned them together differently, took them apart, … you get the idea. Eventually, I figured it out, but here is a picture of me crying:
Finishing Your Own HP Costume
After adding the buttons and a little ribbon to close the robe and ironed on my beautiful Slytherin patch that I got from Etsy, my Hogwarts robe was finished. The entire thing took me only 8 hours and I made it in a single day, so even if you’re a beginner, it can absolutely be done. My DIY Hogwarts costume looks so much better than the cheap version from Wish simply because of the fabric I chose for it, so if you’re worried about your sewing skills there – don’t. If the fabric looks good, so will your Hogwarts robe. There isn’t much that can go wrong here.
I also made Bellatrix’s dress from OotP.
