Hermione Granger Costume

One costume down, four more to go! This is my little Buttercup's Hermione Granger costume, complete with scarf and decal. I'm also working on a cloth copy of Hogwarts: A History, which I'll show you next week when it's done.

This turned out really well and was quick to stitch together. The scarf took some time however and if time is short for you, I'd recommend skipping this accessory.

The house scarves from the first movie had wide bands of each house color. Buttercup is definitely a Gryffindor, so I went with the red and gold for her. I might have to make a Hufflepuff scarf for myself some day. The scarves are knit in the round. I really liked this tutorial from atypically.knit. Not only does she break down the construction, but she gives color and yarn recommendations as well.

Since this is a costume for a 1-year-old, I picked up some of the super cheap Red Heart Super Saver in Gold and Brick. It isn't the best yarn I've ever worked with, but it's good enough for a costume and the colors are perfect. Despite what this picture shows, I did trim my fringe at the bottom to make it neat.

The pattern is designed to make a scarf for someone much larger and it uses circular needles which I hate using. I used size 6 double pointeds and cut the number of stitches in half. Every 11 rows, I switched colors. There are 19 stripes total - 10 in the brick and 9 in the gold.

When you get to the part about making the fringe, I used 3 strands per tassel instead of the recommended 7. I also eyeballed the length, making the fringe a size that looked good to the proportions of the scarf.

The costume itself couldn't have been easier. I started with Simplicity 2571, which is a pattern for, among other things, a witches robe. If you're experienced or daring, you can ignore this portion and draft your own pieces from the shapes below.

Hogwarts robes have hoods and the sleeves aren't especially pointed, so this pattern needed some adjustments. I started by using the smallest size. Since this is a pattern for little kids and not toddlers, I had to keep in mind that it was going to be too long.

Ignoring the instructions, I used the front and back pieces of the robe, the sleeve for the robe and the largest size hood pattern. The front and back pieces I kept the same width because Buttercup has to have a sweater under it. I made it shorter though, because the pattern is made for a much taller child.

The sleeves also got a trim. Because the bell sleeves needed to be less full and shorter, I simply cut off the bottom few inches of the pattern so that they were short enough for Buttercup's long arms.

I picked up a yard each of black cotton and dark red cotton. I cut out two sleeves in black and two in red, two hood sections in black and two in red, two front pieces in black and two in red and one back piece, placed on the fold, in black.

I apologize for not taking more pictures of the actual assembly process, but I think it's fairly straightforward. Starting with the fronts, right sides together, I stitched the red linings to the black fronts, along the neckline to the front center hem. I clipped the corners and turned them right-side out and pressed them flat.

Next came the shoulder seams. Once again, with right sides together, I stitched the fronts to the back, first at the shoulders and then the long seam from the armpit to the hem.

With my basic robe shape done, I stitched the bottoms of the red sleeve linings to the black sleeves, turned them right-side out and pressed them. Then I stitched the sleeve seam and pinned the sleeve to the rest of the robe.

Because I always seem to sew the wrong side of a sleeve to a shirt (or in this case, a robe), I'd like to take a moment and recommend that before sewing anything, you turn the garment right side out to make sure that everything is going the right way. I hate having to rip out seams.

When the sleeves were attached to the robe, the only thing left to stitch was the hood. The long curve is the back and top of the hood so I stitched this seam with right sides together on both the back hood and red lining. I put the right sides of the hood and the lining together and stitched the fronts, leaving the bottom open to turn the piece and to stitch it to the robe.

I ironed the hood pieces and then stitched the black part of the hood to the robe neck. I ironed the raw edge of the lining to the inside of the hood and hand stitched it to the robe. Finally, the robe needed hemming. I managed to get Buttercup to stand still long enough that I was able to determine how much it needed to be taken up. I ends a few inches below her knees so that she won't trip over it when toddling about.

The robe just needed its embellishments to be complete. I used two plain black buttons and a bit of black ribbon to form the closure. The ribbon is a loop, sewed down under one button and slipped over the other. I had to make sure I used enough ribbon to be able to slip the loop over the opposing button, but not so much that the two buttons sat too far apart.

The house crest is an iron-on transfer I made using opaque transfers and this Gryffindor crest I found online. I wasn't crazy about her colors, so I recolored it to suit my taste.

I stitched the scarf onto the robe for two reasons. Firstly, I didn't want Buttercup to lose it and second, I didn't want her to strangle herself with it either. I placed it under her hood and just did a couple of stitches to hold it in place.

The rest of her costume comes straight from her closet. She has a white onesie with a rounded collar, a pair of black pants and black MaryJanes. I'm still on the lookout for a basic grey sweater, but baby clothes manufacturers don't seem to want to dress babies in grey. To simplify the tie issue, I'm going to draw it on with red and gold fabric markers. Cute, right? I'll post pictures after Halloween and I'm happy to answer any questions.