Before I get into the Harry Potter inspired group costume theme, I will share a bit about the history of our many group themes. When our children were babies, they wore animal themed store bought group costumes. They were dressed as ducks for their first Halloween and raccoons for their second. Every year, since our four kids were three years old, we have done a group costume theme with homemade (or mostly homemade) costumes. The themes have been inspired by books or nursery rhymes. If you are looking for group costume themes, hopefully these will provide some inspiration.
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The first two costume themes we did were inspired by nursery rhymes, Little Bo Peep and her Sheep followed by Hey Diddle Diddle, The Cat and the Fiddle. Then, we started doing book inspired costume themes. The first one was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle followed by The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Then, we did The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Narnia inspired Costumes. After that, we it was DIY Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Inspired Group Costumes. You can read specifics on the posts linked above, but in general, I make their costumes and add some store bought elements.
Last year, we picked the Harry Potter inspired group costume theme and, because we were low key and didn’t get a chance to do the photo shoot, they decided to repeat the theme this year. Also, I needed to remake the Dumbledore costume as my DIY attempt last year was a fail! I am glad the second attempt was better. I made the Gryffindor robes as well as the Dumbledore costume with store-bought wigs, accessories, and wands.
The Dumbledore robe was made with fabric from a blanket I bought for this purpose because it was super soft and the color that I was looking for. I used purple satin from a set of sheets for the lining. I made the robe with a coat pattern that I modified to make longer. I adapted the short faux fur collar to make it the length of the coat. I self-drafted his hat using the blanket material. I purchased the house robe pattern and used black cotton fabric with red satin for the lining.
Each year, starting with the nursery rhyme themes, we have been fortunate to have Mia of Mia Z Photography, a professional photographer and mother of twins photograph our children’s costumes. If you have the opportunity, I would recommend having a professional document your children’s costumes. It captures the memories in a special way. All photos in this posts are credited to Mia.
Cool costume’s.