Quidditch Training

We decided as a family to be a Gryffindor Quidditch team for Halloween. It was the single biggest project I've worked on since our move; and it was a good bit overwhelming. Six Quidditch costumes, with a total project preparation/ construction time of three weeks. I was only able to spend about 9 days actually sewing. Yes, professional costumers would, I'm certain, laugh hysterically at that generous deadline. But I didn't know what I was doing. I had no patterns. There were nights I lay awake in bed trying to work out the details of how to make my project look like the film still of Ginny Weasley that I'd taken as my model. And I really had a freak-out moment when I realized that the robes were lined in gold fabric.

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That same freak-out resurfaced when I went to purchase 10 yards of crimson and 6 yards of gold rip-stop nylon from Jo-Anns and discovered that they don't carry it in that quantity and couldn't get it for me before the costumes needed to be done. Friends directed me to a fantastic fabric warehouse the size of a big box store. WOW, that place was fun. It looked for-all-the-world like a Diagon Ally shop inside. Fabric stacked everywhere and threatening to avalanche at any moment.

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I also had a teary moment when the thread I purchased to match the fabric kept snapping in my sewing machine, no matter how I adjusted things. The freak-outs stopped when I gave myself permission to stop aiming for replica costumes. After that things began to get fun. I used shirts to create the top of the robes and a yardstick/sharpie to create the tales. I ran out of time to get the stripes on. I actually had a pattern to make the pads, but ran out of time for that also. Next time, I'll start sewing after the children go back to school.
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The final product it not the exact match I had dreamed about at the beginning of the process, but it's close enough to be recognizable. And, most importantly, the children had such a fantastic time "riding" their brooms, robes billowing in the breeze, and our neighbors were so complimentary that I was quite pleased with the outcome.
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So, cos-play it's not. But for a family Halloween, it was perfect.
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Here we are. The Gryffindor Quidditch team in resident training at the Dailey household. John's the keeper. Tara and I are chasers. Kay and Emma are the beaters and Ian's the seeker. We're one chaser short. Try-outs start in November.
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