Gryffindor House

Yes, I am one of those annoying moms who want to have a theme with our family costumes. The hardest part is getting everyone to agree on what to be. For last years, see here.

I always try to get my children to tell me what they want to be for Halloween far in advance so I can make costumes before the last minute. They told me last spring that they wanted to be Harry Potter characters, but after Matthew and I decided to tighten our budgets, we decided against making Harry Potter costumes. We thought it would be cheaper to recycle some old costumes.

Well, as you can see, that didn't happen!

I found this pattern online and thought I could make robes really inexpensive. I also found graduation robes at DI for Matthew and I, which only cost me a total of $5.

Too bad Matthew and I never got around to wearing them.

A result of me becoming sick this week :(

Walmart was having this great sale on flannel, so I bought some black flannel thinking I could make 3 robes out of it. Wrong! It only made one.

I probably should have measured my children before I went fabric shopping.

So much for inexpensive! Three trips later, I had these made...

These are close-ups so you can see the Gryffindor patches. I just downloaded a picture online and printed it on fabric transfer paper & then ironed it on fabric. I sewed around the edges to make it look like a real patch.

  For the pattern I would suggest cutting out a neck, so they fit better. I sewed the neck first with right sides together then fit the lining inside the cape, wrong sides together and sewed all the edges. This was a trial and error job for me and by the time I got to number 3 I had it down right. The 2nd two robes I made had to have a lining because they were made of such thin fabric. I tried to back-track on the first robe and add some red fabric along the inside edges, but it didn't work out so well. Flannel doesn't do so well with a seam ripper.

With all that said, these really were easy to make :)

My kids off to trick-or-treat Gryffindor style. Definitely cheaper than buying the costumes, but I would suggest making them way before the night before they need them :) Yes, I'm always the procrastinator!