Draco Malfoy - Death Eater (kids Robe, Mask, Scarf and Other Harry Potter Stuff)

My 6 year old is into Harry Potter. But the costume he wanted for Halloween was "Draco Malfoy, as a Death Eater". Now I'm pretty sure that Draco never dresses up as a Death Eater in the books, but that's what he wanted!

So, the pieces to this costume are all pretty much homemade, recycled from other stuff, easy, and cheap!

Here are the elements. Any or all of these elements could be used to create many Harry Potter characters.

1: Hogwarts/Death Eater robe from old t-shirts.
2: Death Eater mask
3: Slytherin (or any Hogwarts House ) scarf, made from comfy old sweatshirts.

And of course, some finishing touches like a broom and a dark mark and a wand...

Step 1: Death Eater Mask

There are some great and way complex instructables out there on death eater masks. This is the quick and dirty method.

1: Get a mask. I found a foam skeleton mask at Family Dollar.
2: Spray paint black, spray paint silver, leaving some of the black showing, until you get a nice old metal look.
3: Draw on designs with a sharpie marker.

Some hints - get inspiration on the designs from the web. I liked making the mouth as shown to give it a real 'death eater' look, and camouflage the original skeleton. I also cut out vertical slits for the mouth as well. (More hints and info here: http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2011/10/make-a-death-eater-mask-from-a-1-skeleton-mask/)

Step 2: Make a Hogwarts Robe From Old T-shirts - T-shirt Prep

An XL men’s tshirt is the perfect size for a wizard robe for a 6 year old.

This version is meant to be a Death Eater robe (I took the liberty of having it double as Draco’s school robe as well). This could of course work for a wide variety of hooded robes, including Jedi robes!

So I grabbed it, and a couple more old t-shirts and with my handy dandy sewing machine, I stitched this up. Note, I am not a seamstress. I have no patience for measuring or exactness. So this is not the most perfect job ever, but he loves it.

And you don’t have to have a sewing machine to do this – there isn’t a ton of sewing involved – but it just makes it go faster.

I only lined the inside of the hood with the Hogwarts House color (in this case, green), but add an extra green tshirt and I’m sure you can figure out how to line the whole robe if you prefer. And leaving out the lining all together makes this a much quicker and easier project, if you want to go all one color.

You’ll need:

3 XL mens t-shirts (2 black, 1 in green for Slytherin (pick your color for another house))
a small length of elastic and a button to make the closure.

For the first black t-shirt, split it down the middle from top to bottom, to make the base for your robe body.

From the other two t-shirts are to make the hood. Cut out a large rectangle out of each t-shirt from the bottom to the armpits.

(see the attached drawings for details)

Step 3: Make a Hogwarts Robe From Old T-shirts - Sewing It Together

Basically, you're using the body tshirt for the main part of the robe, and the extra rectangles become the inside and outside of the hood. This is quick and dirty sewing - I don't measure and I don't worry too much about neatness.

THE HOOD
Measure your rectangles against the width of the collar of your body. You want the rectangles to be an inch or so wider than the width of your collar, when it is totally stretched out. Trim your rectangles to the appropriate size.

Then sew the two rectangles together on 3 sides (see diagram) leaving the finished side (the side that was the bottom of the t-shirts) open. You now have a lined hood.

ATTACH to SHIRT COLLAR
Now we just need to attach it to the collar of the shirt. Stretch out the collar of the shirt, and match it up to the open side of your hood square. The black side should be facing the good (outside) side of your robe. Pin together (just the black collar to the black hood piece (keep the green side out of the way so it doesn't get pinned). Sew the black hood piece to the collar so that the seam will be on the inside of the robe.

MAKE THE HOOD SHAPE
With the hood spread out (green side up) pull the top left and top right corners together (see third diagram) and sew the top of the hood together (hand stitching from inside will look the best for this)

Step 4: Make a Hogwarts Robe From Old T-shirts - Finishing Touches

MAKE THE HOOD SHAPE
With the hood spread out (green side up) pull the top left and top right corners together (see 1ST diagram) and sew the top of the hood together (hand stitching from inside will look the best for this)

CLOSURE
Finally, we just have to attach some sort of fastener. I decided just to sew on a simple button, and a loop of elastic. Knot a 6-8 inch piece of elastic to make a loop, add a second knot below that. Make a hole in one side of your collar and feed it through to the inside. Sew the elastic down to the inside of the collar to secure. Sew a button on the collar on the opposite side. (see 2ND diagram)

For more info, I also wrote this up on my blog: Draco's Robe

Step 5: Slytherin Scarf (from Old Sweatshirts)

If you're going to be Draco Malfoy, you need a Slytherin scarf if you want to be recognized, right?

This is a comfy version that will be sturdy and warm to wear all winter. I've written this up in more detail on my blog if you need more information than is presented here

Supplies: 2 sweatshirts in your House colors (mine are silver (grey) and green, obviously)

Cut the sweatshirts up into a series of matching rectangles, about 6 in tall and double the width that you want your final scarf to be.

Lay out the scarf, starting and ending with the same color. Ensure you have adequate length. Remember to allow for seams.

Starting with one end, pin front 'good' side of first rectangle to the good side of the next, and sew the two pieces together. Continue adding alternating colors, remembering to place the 'good' sides together each time you sew a new piece on.

This will result in a long striped piece of cloth with the seams on the inside. Hem both ends.

Fold the long piece in half lengthwise (with the bad side on the outside), and sew together into a long tube.

Turn inside out for your final scarf!

Step 6: Finishing Touches

For my little death eater, we also drew a dark mark on his arm with a fine tip sharpie, and turned a giant chopstick into a wand. My husband also made a Harry Potter broom for him, but that will have to be another instructible, I think I've packed way too much into this one!

Here's a video where the six year shows and tells you all about his halloween costume: