Let’s face it, I love Harry Potter, I’ve name dropped the series more than once in my blogs, I’ve visited the Studio Tour twice, and it was only a matter of time before it permeated my sewing too. Now I already own a full blown Ravenclaw outfit complete with hooded cloak (it was a gift, don’t ask).
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| Me in full garb at the Studio Tour |
This means that I didn’t need to make any of that, instead I turned to one of the sweetest bits in the book series, and that’s when Harry has his first ever nice Christmas. As we all know the Dursleys were all horrid to Harry, so his first Christmas at Hogwarts was probably the first one in his life he actually enjoyed, and all with his best friend Ron Weasley by his side.
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| The nasty little Dursleys |
A
particularly poignant nod to Harry’s past unhappiness is his surprise at
actually receiving any presents, and the best of these – invisibility cloak
withstanding, because nothing can top that – was the homemade jumper from Molly
Weasley.
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| Invisibility cloak when it malfunctioned |
This wasn’t
something she’d chucked into her shopping basket on a trip to the local
wizarding supermarket (‘Wandsrose’?), this was a jumper she’d spent time
lovingly hand knitting for Harry, the boy whose own guardians basically ignored
him.
Ron is
embarrassed by his mother’s knitted creations but Harry appreciates the gift because
it’s made with love, which means it shows that somebody cares for him. Having
never known a loving family of his own, to be included in the jumper gang of
his best friend’s family must have really meant something to him.
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| One of my favourite bits of the Studio Tour |
The
image of Ron and Harry sat in the Gryffindor common room scoffing chocolates in
front of a roaring fire, all snuggled up in their matching jumpers is one of my
favourites from the first book, and I’m sure I’m not the first person who’s
wanted their own knitted initial jumper after either reading the book or seeing
the film, there was one problem however: I cannot knit.
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| Cosy Gryffindor common room |
If I
were on a sinking ship and the only way to survive was to knit a lifeboat then
I’m afraid I’d be left in the water simply clutching my knitting needles and a
ball of wool looking utterly confused. Trust me when I say that I have
honestly, truly tried before too. Unlike sewing there’s no real margin for
error – I can’t just patch something up later because if I make a mistake the
whole thing might unravel! Plus, I don’t have the concentration or patience for
it, it’s officially a lost cause. So instead I had to find a way to use my
sewing skills to make my own Harry Potter inspired jumper. This is
where the wonderful world of appliqué came in handy.
- First I had to find some wobbly knitted jumpers that had that hand knitted look, with a nice thick marl effect wool. Luckily, I didn’t have to go far, Primark had some in stock for only around £12 each so that was lucky. I chose blue for me as I’m a Ravenclaw, and burgundy for my other half as he’s a Gryffindor (if you’ve not been sorted yet go on Pottermore and get sorted into your official house ASAP!).
- Next I went to Hobbycraft and found some large sheets of good quality felt, I was worried that too thin or cheap felt might disintegrate in the washing machine so it was worth paying a little extra to find a thicker felt.
- Now to make the letter templates was very easy, I made the letters big and bold to get as much out of each piece of felt as I could. However, the felt colours that most closely matching each jumper meant that I ended up switching around who had which jumper, so mine was now the burgundy jumper with the dark pink felt.
- I
decided to hand stitch the letters on as my little craft sewing machine had
been on the blink for a bit and I thought the thick wool might cause it to have
a temper tantrum so instead I carefully did a neat backstitch all round the
edge of each letter and down the centre as well. To help the letters stay in
position while I stitched I used a little fabric glue underneath to hold the
letters flat, which was a great help.
All the best families have matching Harry Potter inspired jumpers
And
there you have it, two Harry Potter inspired jumpers without any knitting in
sight! I’m happy to report they’ve been through the washing machine a few times
and the felt hasn’t budged at all so that’s brilliant as it was my main
concern. It was really quite easy to do, and is one of those tribute projects
that Harry Potter fans get straight away and everyone else just thinks my
partner and I are edging slightly closer to becoming a parody of a 1970s
sitcom. Mind you, I haven’t yet gone as far as making one for the dog though –
I’m still working on that.
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blog content and photos are Copyright of Charisse Sayers Proofreader &
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