This summer will be the final Harry Potter movie and in many ways, it will be the end of so much more. In many ways, it will be the end of - not really our childhood, since this all started long after we stopped being children, but maybe our young years, our childish years. We started all this in college, when we were free and stupid and easy and we end it as adults, with families and jobs and worries that are a bit more pressing than whether or not we have the tickets to a midnight release.
I'm not saying we aren't still stupid and free and easy, see any post about going to a Ren Faire, but where Ren Faires started when we were adults, Harry Potter started when we were young.
So, one last hurrah to our young years.
C'est moi. I have been a Ravenclaw from the very beginning and damn proud of it. All knowledge is worth having. This is a vest pattern from Butterick with a capelet pattern from Vogue added on, done in navy blue broadcloth with a bronze-y gold net over it. It looks messy because I haven't finished hemming the edges. It was the first one I did and after that, I learned my lesson about how to keep that stupid net under control!
Our Slytherin and the closest I came to a 'traditional' cloak pattern. For the others I got creative. For this one, done with green broadcloth and this great silvery/white tulle complete with glitter, I just cut really big rectangles and put them together. It's not visible, but it also reaches to the ground for that perfectly elegant Slytherin look.
I was careful to turn over the hems to keep it in place and I like the look of that wide green border all around. My friend was rather dedicated to the idea of a big, wide hood, which I did and didn't manage. I had to get a bit clever with that too and while it looks right, in reality it's a bit of a sleight of hand with the edges of a square hood tacked together.
For the final two, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, I got a bit creative. Neither of the people involved really gave me clear instructions and I find it impossible to do the same thing twice, so I just started making stuff up. :) One would think my friends would know better than to say 'whatever you think best!' when it comes to costumes.
For Gryffindor, done with red broadcloth and gold tulle, I wanted short and sassy and yet fast, if that makes sense. It looks a bit like a Quidditch uniform, which I found amusing. The gold net does not show up that well in the pictures, but in person, it really pops.
I made this cloak out of triangles and I am pleased with the look of it. Very sharp and different.
And finally, the Hufflepuff cloak. *groan* I am currently making a postage stamp quilt and strip piecing the squares and I figured, what could be easier than sewing long lines of squares together?
The other three cloaks (with the exception of mine, but it was the first and a learning experience) went together like a dream. This one? Like hell. If it could be put together wrong, backwards, crooked, wev? I managed it!
But I also think it is the best looking of the bunch and the most intriguing. I'm almost tempted to make something similar for myself. I have told my friend that she will need to wear black under it, so those cut out diamonds in the front (which are totally serendipity and unplanned) pop.
So, here is to Harry Potter, the books, the movies, the music, the friendship and the laughter over the last - let's see, I read the first book in '98, so...thirteen years.
Thank you, J.K. Rowling and everyone else responsible for this magical adventure.
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