Angelphie

Costume :	Beauxbatons Student
Source :	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Progress :	Complete

Worn At :

None

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Costume Photos

Beauxbaton

Close-up

Aaaand the pair of us

Deathly Hallows launch

Collectormania

Reference

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Costume Information

General
Cost :	£60
Awards :	1st Place Entertainment Category - London Expo May 2006 (Sunday)
Time Taken :	50 hours? really no idea with all the remaking and dealing with 2 uniforms at once

Description
This happened after seeing the trailer for Goblet of Fire, deciding the Beauxbatons uniforms were pretty, and that Ashe and I wanted the uniforms in time to see the film. Simple as that, but trying to make two uniforms in the week before the film was released wasn't really a sensible plan. I ended up making both uniforms to ensure we matched, and because that's the sort of insane thing I tend to do. It was difficult having only the references available before the film’s release, so after seeing it, noticing all the inaccuracies in the costumes, and with more time to do things properly, I revamped them for London Expo. The cuffs and dress collars were altered, and I made entirely new capes, shoes and hats. We later had the chance to wear the costumes to the Deathly Hallows launch in Edinburgh which was awesome. The main challenge was the hats. There are a few felt hat tutorials online so I took ideas from several (mainly this one http://www.costumes.org/advice/costcraftsmanual/tmpjk10.htm) Naturally, all the tutorials deal with normal round-shaped hats, so my dad helped me to design a crazy shaped hat block. We used a styrofoam wig head as a base, and padded it out with bubblewrap (smooth reverse side facing up) until it was the right size. The point was carved from a candle and glued and taped on. Filler smoothed the join and helped form the overall shape. Ghetto, but it worked. With a block made, it was very easy to mould felt over it going by the instructions in the tutorials I’d found (surprisingly shaping the felt was the easiest part). I covered the block in clingfilm so the felt wouldn’t stick to it, wet the felt, and stretched it over the block, pinning it in place around the base. Luckily the hats in the film have a seam, which made shaping it even easier for me. It was then coated in glue and left to dry. The tutorials suggested two layers of felt, but I couldn’t get the two layers to stick together, so left it at one which was tough enough on its own. The brims took a lot of fiddling with paper shapes to figure out, but once they were patterned, I just cut out the shape and hand stitched it to the hat dome. The shape is essentially two curves, a large outer one, and a smaller inner one. Kind of hard to describe. What it comes down to is that the outer edge of the brim has a greater circumference than the inner edge. That means it angles downwards, and it's easy to flip up one side. I had experimented with using glue on the brim to stiffen it like the dome, but found it warped the felt. I’d avoided that problem when making the domes as with the felt stretched over the block it couldn’t warp, but couldn’t deal with the brim the same way. As with the domes, I couldn’t get two layers of felt to stick together either. So the brims are a single layer of plain felt. I did stiffen them a bit using spray starch, but they stay in shape fine by themselves mostly – I just have to be very careful when transporting them. And iron them occasionally. For the dresses we couldn’t afford any of the lovely satins we’d have liked, so resorted to a cheap acetate. It was horribly shiny stuff, but I used the reverse, more matte side which is surprisingly nice when ironed to death first. I made the dresses from large pieces – they only have side seams. I’m pleased that they nevertheless fit closely at the waist and still have a fairly full skirt (although I still can't decide from the references whether there's meant to be princess seams or not). The buttons are functioning, so are the actual closure for the dresses (my first time trying out my sewing machine’s buttonhole foot). The pointy cuffs also fasten with functioning buttons. I had initially had trouble patterning the capes, and I found better fabric for the lining and both collars too, so I'm glad I remade them. The shoes have gone through several changes. We both didn’t like the flap thing over the laces, so went with a similar style of shoe in the black and blue colours...and left it at that. Our original "accurate" pairs were basically black shoes with the same blue felt from the hats added on, but we later found awesome shoes in New Look for £10, which I painted in blue acrylic paint. They're almost my favourite part of the costume now! Because of the heels of doooom, we mostly wear plain black shoes which are muuuch comfier

Description

This happened after seeing the trailer for Goblet of Fire, deciding the Beauxbatons uniforms were pretty, and that Ashe and I wanted the uniforms in time to see the film. Simple as that, but trying to make two uniforms in the week before the film was released wasn't really a sensible plan.

I ended up making both uniforms to ensure we matched, and because that's the sort of insane thing I tend to do. It was difficult having only the references available before the film’s release, so after seeing it, noticing all the inaccuracies in the costumes, and with more time to do things properly, I revamped them for London Expo. The cuffs and dress collars were altered, and I made entirely new capes, shoes and hats. We later had the chance to wear the costumes to the Deathly Hallows launch in Edinburgh which was awesome.

The main challenge was the hats. There are a few felt hat tutorials online so I took ideas from several (mainly this one http://www.costumes.org/advice/costcraftsmanual/tmpjk10.htm)
Naturally, all the tutorials deal with normal round-shaped hats, so my dad helped me to design a crazy shaped hat block. We used a styrofoam wig head as a base, and padded it out with bubblewrap (smooth reverse side facing up) until it was the right size. The point was carved from a candle and glued and taped on. Filler smoothed the join and helped form the overall shape. Ghetto, but it worked.

With a block made, it was very easy to mould felt over it going by the instructions in the tutorials I’d found (surprisingly shaping the felt was the easiest part). I covered the block in clingfilm so the felt wouldn’t stick to it, wet the felt, and stretched it over the block, pinning it in place around the base. Luckily the hats in the film have a seam, which made shaping it even easier for me. It was then coated in glue and left to dry. The tutorials suggested two layers of felt, but I couldn’t get the two layers to stick together, so left it at one which was tough enough on its own.

The brims took a lot of fiddling with paper shapes to figure out, but once they were patterned, I just cut out the shape and hand stitched it to the hat dome. The shape is essentially two curves, a large outer one, and a smaller inner one. Kind of hard to describe. What it comes down to is that the outer edge of the brim has a greater circumference than the inner edge. That means it angles downwards, and it's easy to flip up one side. I had experimented with using glue on the brim to stiffen it like the dome, but found it warped the felt. I’d avoided that problem when making the domes as with the felt stretched over the block it couldn’t warp, but couldn’t deal with the brim the same way. As with the domes, I couldn’t get two layers of felt to stick together either. So the brims are a single layer of plain felt. I did stiffen them a bit using spray starch, but they stay in shape fine by themselves mostly – I just have to be very careful when transporting them. And iron them occasionally.

For the dresses we couldn’t afford any of the lovely satins we’d have liked, so resorted to a cheap acetate. It was horribly shiny stuff, but I used the reverse, more matte side which is surprisingly nice when ironed to death first. I made the dresses from large pieces – they only have side seams. I’m pleased that they nevertheless fit closely at the waist and still have a fairly full skirt (although I still can't decide from the references whether there's meant to be princess seams or not). The buttons are functioning, so are the actual closure for the dresses (my first time trying out my sewing machine’s buttonhole foot). The pointy cuffs also fasten with functioning buttons. I had initially had trouble patterning the capes, and I found better fabric for the lining and both collars too, so I'm glad I remade them.

The shoes have gone through several changes. We both didn’t like the flap thing over the laces, so went with a similar style of shoe in the black and blue colours...and left it at that. Our original "accurate" pairs were basically black shoes with the same blue felt from the hats added on, but we later found awesome shoes in New Look for £10, which I painted in blue acrylic paint. They're almost my favourite part of the costume now! Because of the heels of doooom, we mostly wear plain black shoes which are muuuch comfier

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