Harry Potter / Ravenclaw “cheater” costume, first debuted in…oh my god, I don’t even know, but it’s been lolling around in my closet (and being worn just to be worn) for years. This year, it’s out for quick-and-dirty Halloween, so venture onward for details and close-ups of the pumpkins!

The main body of the costume consists of a long-sleeved V-neck shirt and a knee-length skirt with a single pleat, both in black and both purchased at Goodwill. The tie, also one of those Goodwill finds I love so much, has diagonal blue-and-silver stripes – great for the pre-Prisoner of Azkaban era with the grey-and-white uniforms (which I also had at one point); not so much for post-PoA with the black uniforms and barred ties. The shirt is just a white blouse, straight out of my closet.

The scarf is the one thing I can take credit for – it took years to finish because hand-crafting is hard on me and I’d have to put it away for extended periods of time, but once it was finally done, I had something I could be rightfully proud of. I’ve long since lost track of the site I got the pattern from, but the pattern’s author had done a great deal of movie-studying to come up with something that would be as close as possible to the official post-PoA version. It’s circularly knitted with Caron Simply Soft yarn in Movie!Ravenclaw colours, dark blue and silver, fringed at either end with more of the blue yarn, and hangs to my knees when draped loose (with no neck-wrap). Of anything I have that’s technically a “costume” piece, it gets the most wear – it’s SO warm and cozy!

My roommate and I decided on our pumpkins together, and he tracked down suitable images that he printed out, turned into stencils, and carved:

Mine is the “Always” doe (because I always cry, even after all this time):

And his is an adorably-grumpy Chibi Snape, because who else can you even have, with that?