Wednesday, October 19, 2016

DIY Harry Potter: Beauxbatons Fleur Delacour Hat


My favorite parts about dressing up are the tiny details that add to the costume. There are also parts to the costume that make it the most recognizable. This is true for the costume of Fleur Delacour in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4). When the Beauxbatons Academy arrives with their blue dresses sashaying behind them and magical butterflies surrounding their twirls, it's the Beauxbatons' hats that add the detail and make their costumes perfection.

This is what you'll need to make your own custom Fleur Delacour Beauxbatons hat:

Materials
1.) Wool felt capeline -or- wool felt hood (Jedrzejko)
2.) Flower hat shaper (I got "The Flower" hat shaper from hatshapers.com)
3.) Blue Dye (I used Rit liquid dye in "Denim Blue" from Walmart. Just make sure it matches your dress fabric, unless your wool felt already matches it)
-or-
Rustoleum Satin Wildflower Blue Spray Paint. Pick either the dye or the paint. Honestly, the results are similar. I like how my dyed hat felt smooth, but I like how my sprayed hat's brim turned up on one side and stayed there.


Honestly, I think the hat is the key to making the perfect costume. And it really is easier than I thought to make a hat. I watched a ton of videos on YouTube on how to do it from scratch - like they take this thready looking wool felting stuff that you had to pull and layer and layer and let dry and . . . it seemed like such a lengthy and expensive process when you can just buy a pre-shaped hood or capeline like these for between $10-15:

White Wool Felt Capeline from Jedrzejko - notice how this one already flares out. 

Light Blue Wool Felt Hood from Jedrzejko (these are cheaper than capelines, but are harder to shape/stretch)

I bought a capeline and a hood to test out so I could see which looked better. I think they work equally well - it all just depends on your fabric color. I bought an off-white hood (C578) and a blue (525) hood/cone from Jedrzejko because I wasn't sure of the color hues. I ended up spray painting the blue one because the color wasn't close enough to my fabric, but I think the light blue one is actually perfect in color if you compare to the movie. The off-white one, I dyed first.



Step 1: Dye your fabric. Since my fabric was a different blue than any of the capeline colors I could find, I planned on dying it. I just followed the instructions on the Rit bottle (3 gallons of boiling water, 1 cup vinegar, and half the bottle of dye). I used this big black canner because they recommend not using a pot that you cook in. Honestly, as long as you wash the pot really well afterwards (you could boil soap and water in it when you're done), I don't see a problem with using it for dying. 

If your sink water is really hot, boiling the water may not be necessary.
I just added mine to the really hot water.
It's a little scary to place the white wool into the pot, but it works really well. If for some weird reason, your dying fails, all hope isn't lost. Just jump to my alternative spray painting method (Step 5).



I swirled it around in my big black canner/pot and then let it sit for about 30 minutes. I probably could have left it for about 10 minutes and it might not have gone so dark, but I still like it. After your dye soak is done, rinse the capeline/hood until the water is clear.

Step 2: If your wool felt is already the right color, just boil some water and stick your hood/capeline in it. Otherwise, dye it first. Once the wool felt is completely wet, take it out and put on your hatshaper. You can buy just about any hat shaper from hatshapers.com! I found this one (called the flower). It is made from this really hard plastic stuff, super durable and easily reusable.

Flower hat form/hat shaper from Hatshapers.com

Step 3: Then the fun part! Pull and press with your hands until the hat fits the shape of the hat shaper. I probably spent 15-20 minutes doing this. The hardest part is getting the top to fit to the tip of the hat shaper. I ended up using my iron on a steam setting to get it perfect.

Once it is close to the shape you want, tie some yarn, ribbon or fabric around the part right before it flares to help it hold it's shape.

All I had on hand to wrap around the hat shaper was some wool yarn.
A large rubber band or even a strip of fabric would work well too.

Step 4: Let it dry. This can take a day or two. I used a couple of hand towels to soak up as much water as possible to speed up the process. 

Step 5: Trace a nice edge along the brim (I used a piece of chalk) and trim off any excess. (If you dyed it from white, you might have to use a marker or a little more of the dye to paint the edge where you cut it off. My dye didn't completely penetrate the wool, so I just used a tooth brush and a little more of the dye with water and painted along the edge. I used an old wet rag to rinse off the dye and let the hat sit back on the hatshaper for the edge to dry.

Step 5 (alternative to dying): Once that hat is shaped and dried, if you didn't dye it or the color is quite what you wanted, spray paint it! I used the same paint as I used to make my shoes
I spread out some newspaper in my garage, removed the hat from the hat shaper and sprayed just the outside. I waited about an hour and then spray painted the underside of the brim. I didn't paint the inside of the hood. I used my hands to turn up the brim on one side before it completely dried and used some crumpled newspapers to keep it tilted while drying. I think this was the key to capturing the turned up edge.




Step 6: Wear it! You hat may not tip up on one side like Fleur's in the movie. If you end up spray painting your hat (it works surprisingly well on wool felt), the hat will become stiffer. I also had some stiffener on hand for the hat I dyed (it was basically a starch spray) that I used just on the inside of the hat. You can also use mod podge painted on the inside, but I was worried it might soak through the hat so I didn't try it.


I couldn't have made the hat without this shaper from www.hatshapers.com.

If you want to get Fleur's wand, you can order it from AliExpress here.
I bought the metal core one ($12.99) because I was worried about it breaking.


I hope your hat turns out. Let me know if you find any more tips or tricks while making yours! And don't forget to check out my Fleur Delacour Beauxbatons Shoes and Fleur Delacour Beauxbatons Dress and Capelet instructions (including a free pattern for the collar and cuffs)!


XoXo,

Fleur
aka Robin
(and my little Dobby too)

22 comments:

  1. Hi Robin!! Do you by chance want to sell or loan or your hat shaper?! I was going to give your tutorial a shot for Halloween this year ;) thanks! -Lindsey

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    1. Lindsay,

      You can get the hatshaper from: http://hatshapers.com/Product%20Pages/Flower.htm

      They sell lots of shapes, but I love this one so much! I'd be willing to loan it out if you lived near me (Lehi, UT), otherwise, with shipping it probably cheaper to buy one from the above website.

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    2. Washington :/ not quite close enough to drive over and drop it off!! But, I thought I would check ;) I thought shipping might just eek out as less expensive but I probably underestimated how big of a box it goes in -- I will send you pictures of the final product :) I'm testing out a different dress pattern as the base but have the vintage Vogue one as backup.

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  2. Hi! I was wondering what size hat shaper you bought and the circumference of the hat?

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    1. I got a size large for the hatshaper. It's 23 inches circumference. I have a pretty normal sized head for a woman, but you could order a medium or small if your head is a bit smaller.

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  3. This is incredible. Would it be possible to make without the hat shaper seeing as its 30$ ...

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  4. Robin,
    I live in Logan Utah, I see that you live in Lehi! Would you be willing to let me borrow your hat shaper? Or I'd even pay you to rent the hat for halloween just so i dont have to order the material. However, you're probably using it for halloween so I get it if not haha. Let me know, thank yoU!

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  5. I figured out how to sign in myself lets try this again! Hi Robin! I live in Logan Utah, I see that you live in Lehi! Would you be willing to let me borrow your hat shaper? Or I'd even pay you to rent the hat for halloween just so i dont have to order the material. However, you're probably using it for halloween so I get it if not haha. Let me know, thank you!

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    1. Hi Mckall! Just email me and we can chat. authorrobinking at gmail dot com

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  6. Hi Robin, I would you really be willing to lend your mold? I love your tutorial and my daughter really wants to be Fleur for Halloween. I live in Orem and I could drive up and meet you. My email is camillekidd@yahoo.com. Let me know what you think.

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  7. Robin, do you recall how long it took for the shaper to arrive after you ordered it? Maybe I still have time to order one.

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    1. It took about a week. You could totally email the owner and see if she can expedite it. SHe was awesome to work with! carol@hatshapers.com

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  8. Hi Robin! I know this is a long shot, but would you consider making this hat as a custom order? I'm having trouble finding sellers online. They are either too expensive ($165!) or the material does not look right. I don't have the time to make one and I don't really want to own a hat shaper I will never use again. Yours looks perfect! Please let me know if you would be able to do this. It would be for a con in early October!

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  9. I wish I had time to help you! If you read my tutorial, it was pretty easy to make. You could probably get it done in a few hours (less time than it would take me to figure out how to ship one without ruining it! Sorry I can't help you out!

    Robin

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  10. Robin! I live not too far away from you... would you be available to make me the hat?? I can come and pick it up so no need to ship. Best case scenario... I'd love to ask for you to make me the whole costume! Though I know that's less likely! Thanks! I don't need it until Halloween!

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  11. Robin, did you order your Hat Shaper with or without the Flanged Brim option? Im sorry I couldn't tell by looking at your picture.
    Thanks
    Leslie

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    1. http://www.hatshapers.com/Product%20Pages/Flower.htm this is the one I ordered!

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  12. This is so inspiring. You are an incredible crafter. Perhaps I need to add "making a stylish hat" to 2020! I just drove through Lehi and would love to borrow the hat shaper, but am now out of range (home in NM).

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  13. Hi Robin: thank you so much for the tutorial. I've gotten up to the trim the brim part - could you tell me how wide you cut your brim? Also, did you but your brim symmetrical, or is it wider in some areas?

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    1. I used scissors to cut it. Mine ended up being about 14-15 inches in diameter. It is the symmetrical.

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