Harry Potter Costume Contest

Oct 02, 2008

Posted by: NickTLC

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Harry Potter Costume Contest

The Leaky Cauldron’s Contest Team and the Crafty Witches have teamed up to bring you this month’s contest theme, Costuming, just in time for Halloween and the various Yule Balls one might attend at year’s end. Since the rise of the Harry Potter series in popularity, Costuming has been at the forefront of our fandom’s activities. This medium brings many avenues of exploration to a fan’s creativity. We Costume to replicate the fantastic look of a movie character, we Costume to bring to life our ideas of what Wizarding attire should look like, and we Costume to better understand the minds of our favorite characters.

Our challenge to you is to create a costume of any HP character, wizarding community member, magical creature, or theme from the Harry Potter books. If you can Costume it, you may enter it. You may choose to make your costume entirely from scratch (sewing, prop-work, and the like) and either enter as an experienced or inexperienced crafter, or you may also piece your costume from commercially made products. Convince us of your Costuming prowess and the prize, one of 3 Wizard Wood Wands, is yours.

General Rules

All entries must meet PG-13 standards of decency and good taste.
Anyone over the age of 13 can enter the contest, including staff members who are not involved in the judging process.
Winners for the 3 Wizard Wood Wands will be judged in three categories: experienced handmade, inexperienced handmade, and commercial items.
Please refer to our FAQ if you are not sure of something.
If you have any questions not answered on the FAQ, or would like to discuss this Contest, please come to the Contest Corner Forum of The Leaky Lounge.

Handmade Costume

Create a Harry Potter themed costume (person, place, or thing) by hand.
Costumes must have all significant pieces created by hand. Items like glasses, wands, etc do not have to be handmade.
All costumes submitted must be created by the contestant. You may use a “model” for your costume, but please make sure the model is okay with the photo being submitted. Any costumes not created by the contestant will be disqualified.
You must enter your handmade costume in one of the following categories: experienced crafter or inexperienced crafter. You are considered an “experienced” crafter if you submit a piece using a technique you have mastered. You are an “inexperienced” crafter if this is a technique you have rarely tried in your past (no more than once or twice a year).
You may submit up to two photos of you or your model and your costume. Photographs may be from digital cameras or scanned “paper” photos, but they must be submitted by email, in .jpg, .png, or .gif format. Paper photos are to be 4″ x 6″ or 6″ x 4″ and digital photos of approximately the same length and width (e.g. 1200 x 1800 or 1800 x 1200 pixels for 300 pixels/inch). File sizes no larger than 1 MB, please.
Please submit a short explanation of your costume (e.g. who/what you or your model are, what you created, what you used/bought to create your costume, etc).
All submissions must be e-mailed to [email protected] by Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 11:59 pm (EDT). Depending on which category your costume falls underneath, please put “HP costume – experienced” or “HP costume – inexperienced” in the subject line of the e-mail. Please also include a name to be used for authorship (real name or Leaky Lounge name).

Commercial Items Costume

Create a Harry Potter themed costume (person, place, or thing) from commercial items you’ve purchased.
Commercial item costumes are those that you have pieced together from various things you’ve bought over time (e.g. wands, glasses, robes, hats, pants, masks, etc). Your costume can be created from licensed Harry Potter items or from things that have nothing to do with Harry Potter. We are not looking for those out-of-the-can costumes that are fully put together for you (e.g. robe, glasses, and wand).
All costumes submitted must be assembled by the contestant. You may use a “model” for your costume, but please make sure the model is okay with the photo being submitted. Any costumes not created by the contestant will be disqualified.
You may submit up to two photos of you or your model and your costume. Photographs may be from digital cameras or scanned “paper” photos, but they must be submitted by email, in .jpg, .png, or .gif format. Paper photos are to be 4″ x 6″ or 6″ x 4″ and digital photos of approximately the same length and width (e.g. 1200 x 1800 or 1800 x 1200 pixels for 300 pixels/inch). File sizes no larger than 1 MB, please.
Please submit a short explanation of your costume (e.g. who/what you or your model are, what you created, what you used/bought to create your costume, etc).
All submissions must be e-mailed to [email protected] by Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 11:59 pm (EDT). Please put “HP Costume – commercial” in the subject line of the e-mail. Please also include a name to be used for authorship (real name or Leaky Lounge name).

Costuming Resources @ Leaky Crafts

Crafts at the Leaky Cauldron has a great wealth of information for the beginning or intermediate costumer. Do peruse the many pages of tutorials and resources for costume ideas and how-to instructions.

To begin, you may desire robes or student uniforms. You may want to start with the Simple Canon Robes tutorial, a House Scarf pattern, or a Wizard School V-Neck Vest pattern.

For character specific accessories or props, consider projects like Luna Lovegood’s Radish Earrings, a Time-Turner, Wands, or perhaps a Dragon Egg.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for on the webpage or have another crafty question, please visit the Harry Potter Crafts Forum on the Leaky Lounge.

UPDATE: The winners have been announced! Here are the winners:

Inexperienced Handmade:

1st Place – Austin Davidson

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I made the costume totally myself — beginning by shaving my entire body and then duct-taping on all the horns you see (which I made previously out of clay and then hand-painted) onto my body. The tail I made out of plumbers bendable plastic piping, covered in tape, clay horns, and fishnet tights, attached to my body via a belt. I then covered my entire body in 12 coats of liquid latex to hide the duct tape wrinkles. Next, I put on fishnet tights, shirt, and gloves. I slipped on some fingers I made previously out of clay, and used spirit gum to attach the facial prosthetic (which was purchased along with the teeth and contacts). Viola.

So what am I, right? I thought long and hard about being something creepy from the Harry Potter books. I wanted something evil, but unique. I decided to be a Boggart — shapeshifter. The scariest thing I can think of goes back to my childhood fear of snakes and some reptiles. I decided to be a boggart shifting into my greatest fear. Thus, I came up with this costume.

2nd Place – Cassy Child

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The star of the show is our little 6 month old girl, Elliot. The Golden Snitch. This costume was completely made by mom. Even the words “I open at the close” were created and applied by her. (This costume proved to be exceptionally difficult to carry!)

3rd Place (tie) – Elizabeth Jovanovich and Kimberly Salamon

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[Elizabeth Jovanovich] So this is me as Draco Malfoy when HP7 was released. The pads, broom and robe were all homemade, and the clothes and shoes were bought secondhand and altered. It was definitely a challenge making this costume, because I never sew, and I have to say, my first few attempts at welding on the broom were disastrous, but the finished product was the envy of everyone in the bookstore that night.

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[Kimberly Salamon] We recently had a horse show that had a “Halloween Costume Contest” at the end of the competition. We decided that our horse Daisy would make a great Harry Potter. I sewed her “cloak”, attaching a collar for the shirt and robe. I used velcro for the front so we could get it on her easily. I sewed a scarf and ironed on the Griffyndor crest (also on the cloak) which I found online and printed onto fabric transfer paper. I couldn’t find a pair of Harry’s glasses that were large enough, so I pieced together 2 hoop earrings with pipe cleaners and wrapped the entire thing in black electrical tape. we then curled the ends of the pipe cleaners around Daisy’s bridle so they wouldn’t fall off. She loved them! For the finishing touches, we mussed up her hair and used brown shoe polish to create her “scar”. We think she made a very dashing “Daisy Potter”!

Experienced Handmade:

1st Place – Maura Burns

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When I saw the featurette on the OOTP costumes, I was very taken with the complex designs for all the Death Eaters, and decided I wanted to make a female Death Eater costume using those designs for inspiration. I took Lucius’ leather jerkin with detached sleeves, and turned it into a high-necked Elizabethan doublet. The doublet is made of leather with a layer of black cotton batting and cotton twill lining, bound all around with black bias tape, and zips up the back. The front and sleeves are heavily quilted with Celtic motifs. Each sleeve took over 20 hours to quilt; I had never previously worked with leather or quilting. The doublet is worn with a 4-paneled wool gabardine skirt patterned with the pewter swirl designs that appear on several of the Death Eater outfits; I enlarged pictures of Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix, copied individual motifs from her skirt, and made stamps to recreate the designs. The skirt is worn over black pants and boots. A black wool sleeveless cloak with pointed hood and pleated shoulders inspired by Lucius’ costume goes over all, and I styled a brown wig with a petaled bun to wear with it. The boots and
my wand were purchased; everything else was handmade by me over the course of about six months.

2nd Place – IsDihara

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My model (my son, who was five months old at the time) is wearing a Baby Mandrake costume.

To create it I followed a Simplicity Hat pattern (# if you’re interested),using quilting fabric in a mottled brown to resemble dirt. Black soutache braid on the brim adds visual interest. Green silk flower stems were inserted through eyelet holes sewn into the top of the hat. The stems were duct-taped to a small paper plate for stability. Padding was added to protect baby’s tender head as well as to compensate for the hat being about one size too large.

An infant onesie was painted with walnut ink and black fabric paint (both were purchased from the local Michael’s) to resemble dirt.

The fabric flower pot was created from scratch. I drafted my own pattern for this, using my son’s torso and leg measurements for reference points.

The clay flower pot is sewn in the fashion of a lined garment using terra cotta-colored cotton fabric — there is an outside layer and an inside layer of fabric sewn together. The round bottom is also reinforced so his feet wouldn’t poke through if he kicked or squirmed too enthusiastically. The outer layer was padded around the rim with cotton batting to add dimension. The lining layer folded over the padded rim, giving the flower pot a more realistic look. This design also allowed me to insert plastic canvas sheets (loosely stitched together into a graduated cylinder shape) between the lining and outer fabric layers to help the pot hold its shape without being too rigid.

3rd Place – Katie Brown

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All parts of this costume are handmade and sewn completely out of scratch. (the coat is lined in silk, too.) The wand is carved out of cedar. And the photo is taken in my bedroom which I made all the decorations in to look like the potions lab

Commercial:

1st Place – Jessica Wolfrum

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I designed and pieced the costume together from items I purchased at local thrift stores. The costume includes: shawls, headwraps, an overcoat, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, glasses, a wig, a skirt, a handbag, tarot cards (with “The Tower” being prominent), a crystal ball, and a teacup with “The Grim” at the bottom (I created by gluing coffee grinds to the bottom of the cup).

2nd Place – Keith Hawk

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The costume was inspired by the Michael Gambon version and was all about layers. It starts with a commercially purchased wig with beard which I tied in the center. On top is the Dumbledore hat available at Warner Bros. store. The wand was Dumbledores wand from Warner Bros store as well. But the trick was in the robes….it started with a white robe underneath. Then there is a thin purple tunic in the middle which was tied with a purple rope that has tassels, then the large sleeved top robe with purple liner. Hedwig was flown in during the feast with a howler for one of the guests.

3rd Place – Analisa

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The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.