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Home Family Halloween How to Make a Frugal Harry Potter Costume

So your child wants to enroll over at Hogwarts School of Magic? Well you can't exactly cast a spell but you can conjure up a pretty nifty Harry Potter outfit. If you are familiar with the story the main characters walk around in robes and capes all the time. Here are the basic elements you'll need to create that magical Potter look.

You'll need these supplies:

Material for under robe-black dress, t-shirt, or old black costume from other years
Material for cape-black square cloth (tablecloth, sheet, drop cloth, or at least 2 yards of material)
One shoe string (preferrably a dark color)
A juice can lid to make and outline for glasses
1 piece of black poster board
A new pencil
Glue
Glitter
Black paint
lipstick

1. Under Robe - This is basically a long black dress. If you don't have black any dark round necked dress would do. This can be made from dresses in your closet or created with a basic pattern from the fabric store. If you have a small child, you could even try to do it with an oversized t-shirt.
   
   
2. The Cape - If you have any kind of black square cloth then tie it around your child's neck for the cape. You can purchase black material or you can also use tablecloths, drop cloths, sheets, bedspreads, or coats with the sleeves tucked in. If you want to try to look fancy you can pin or masking tape a shiny inside to the cape in a material of light colored silk. You may want to sew on or somehow attach a shoestring cut in half on each side of the neck so your child can easily take on and off the cape.
   
   
3. The Glasses - Harry Potter wears these big circular black glasses. These can be cut out of cardboard or tagboard. Take an orange juice lid and draw around it for those perfect little circles, then extend it out for the sides of the glasses.
   
   
4. The Wizard Hat - Make this out of posterboard. Make a triangular cone (you know, like a teepee) and glue or staple. You may want to take some white glue and make the outlines of moons and stars and then put glitter on them or you can also glue on metallic confetti.
   
   
5. The Wand - Take a new pencil and paint it whatever color you want the wand to be. Hot glue, tape or staple a star made out of poster board to the end of it. You may want to put glue and then glitter all over both sides of the star and the top of the pencil where the star is attached.
   
   
6. The Scar - As you may or may not know, Harry has a lightening shaped scar in the center of his forehead put there by the evil Lord Voldemort. Take a tube of your darkest lipstick and make a lightning bolt starting at the hair line and ending where the glasses will go.
   
   

Good luck creating ol' Harry in your....(thunder crash)...(organ notes)...laboratory!

Teresa Higginbotham is also known as "Tightwad Tess".

Take the Next Step

• Halloween Costume Ideas
• Homemade Halloween Make Up, Bruises & Blood - From FamilyCorner.com
• Halloween Special: Childrens' Party Ideas
• Bright Kids Newsletter - Free weekly newsletter with ideas for parents who want to be involved in their children's education.

Do you have a time or money saving idea that wasn't included in this article? Please send it to tips@stretcher.com. We get the best ideas from our readers!

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