Hogwarts for Halloween

Hopefully I'll have better pictures of this costume in action later, but for now here are some selfies of my Halloween costume.  I'm staying with some friends over this Halloween, so there will actually be kids around to enjoy it with!

I made a Hogwarts robe for the Hufflepuff house (if you're not a Harry Potter fan this won't make sense, don't worry!)  I happened to already have an extra badge for Hufflepuff.  The robe was made by eyeballing proportions from this post and freehanding a pattern onto the fabric.  I did shorten all the lengths since I am quite a bit shorter than the poster.

The robe is made from a black twill and lined with gold fabric along the front, sleeves, and hood. Of course I had to make myself a wand as well.  A dowel rod painted brown and washed with copper paint, then buffed with black to age it.  Here's a picture that shows the subtle shine pretty well.

I used a bit of leather craft twine to decorate the handgrip.

The grip is topped with a Turks Head, ode to time spent sailing :)  Not pictured, I also have a waxed canvas school bag to carry.  I've been experimenting with bag designs, will post if I ever make one I'm really happy with!

I haven't been around kids on Halloween since I was a kid myself so I am quite looking forward to this year :)

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.