Happy almost Halloween! This year, I've been very Harry Potter inspired. Specifically, I wanted to recreate the outfit from one of my favourite characters, Fleur Delacour from the Goblet of Fire movie.
The Beauxbaton uniform is very late 1930s, early 1940s inspired:
I found the perfect blue colour at Edinburgh Fabrics, a synthetic crepe that is very soft to the touch and drapes wonderfully.
I made the 'Fleur Dress' using McCall pattern 3733 from the year 1940. For the cape, I turned to McCall 8776 from 1938 – which has the absolute perfect mid arm length, tie-front cape. I made my version without the collar in the same blue fabric.
And what's even better is that David and I went to see the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour just outside of London. Oh my goodness...what an AMAZING place.
Going through Platform 9 and 3/4:
They have done such a wonderful job of preserving all the backdrops, props and aspects from all of the movies. We started our tour at around 4:30pm and didn't finish until almost 10pm – and we had to rush through the final rooms. There is so much to see! They've recreated the Hogwarts Express:
As well as the inside of the trains:
The tour starts in the Great Hall – and it is phenomenal! The hall is very large and it's great to see how they were able to film the movies within this fantastic set:s
Just to get the scale of the hall with the giant gargoyle lanterns and long bench tables:
One of my favourite set pieces is definitely the bridge. It's crickety and twists and turns and the details are just fantastic!
Perfect for the Fleur Dress! Of course, being among so many Potter lovers was great too. I got lots of compliments on the outfit and a few people thought I worked there! haha.
However, to really complete the outfit, I knew I wanted to get the hat! This hat is very reminiscent of some 1939 hats I've seen. I found an amazing online seller, MontanaKnitWitsFelts, who makes these beauties by hand in whatever colour you want.
I thought long and hard and decided to go with a darker Navy blue hat to match my shoes – as I knew I wanted to wear the hat again with different outfits. I absolutely love it! It fits perfectly and was custom made for me. Rebecca was such a great and communicative seller. I'm hoping to commission a few more period hats from her!
EXPECTO PATRONUM......teehee... David and I were debating what my Patronus would be...we are thinking either a Lynx, a tiny bee or a giggly bunny....
I'm delighted that you’re blogging again!
ReplyDeleteHowever, my comment is about an older post.
I recently bought a Beauxbatons blue 1940s suit, which unfortunately has some fading in the shoulders. Since I’m a lifelong vegetarian, I can’t hide the fading under a fur wrap. But a Beauxbatons capelet! That might be perfect! (Or it might be impossible to match the color. Or just downright stupid looking.)
Do you have any advice on sewing a garment like this? And do you think this would work with 1940s shoulders?
Maybe an unapologetically fake fur might be the way to go..... I could sculpt a creepy fox head.....
If this isn’t the biggest example of Sunk Cost Fallacy, I don’t know what is!