Harry Potter and Hedwig Go Trick or Treating

I know people are already thinking about Christmas and here I am still posting about Halloween. Forgive me, please, because I didn’t know where I would find or (buy if I could!) time in the past couple of weeks to blog more often as I wanted to. So let me share this update with you before it totally gets stale. Better late than never! 😀

We never really celebrate Halloween even when I was a kid. We just spend it like any ordinary day though I remember during my childhood days, there were activities that some kids my age would do during Halloween or usually on the eve of November 1 like melting and molding balls of candle wax and pangangaluluwa, the Halloween version of Christmas caroling. 🙂 And watching scary episodes of a documentary show Magandang Gabi Bayan! 🙂 But other that, nothing. No costumes, no trick or treat, no candies, no parties.

But recently Halloween has grown to be huge celebration with all the pumpkins and spiders and all that spooky decorations around and is targeted among kids who are being dressed in cute (or silly) costumes to go around the neighborhood, malls or offices with a pumpkin basket in their hands asking for some candies and sweets.

Personally, I’m not an extremist in my stand as a Christian when it comes to celebrating Halloween. The creepy and gory emblems of this occasion signify its “demonic” nature — black and ghosts, scary masks and blood and all those stuff. But the way it’s being “celebrated” based on my experience does not categorically “glorify” the evil-ish things such that there are rituals that put the dark images in pedestal (that’s an extreme). It’s simply for fun for the kids and the kids at heart — unleashing our creative juices to decorate office spaces with non-spooky stuff, usually Disney and all kiddie decors, and for the kids, enjoying some sweet treats while parading in their cute costumes. I remember when I was a youth in our local church IEMELIF in my hometown, we regularly had a Halloween fellowship not to celebrate the spookiness of the season but to always remind us about the love, beauty and goodness of God amidst all the darkness around. We also had a costume contest once, of course without the scary side.

While Halloween generally appear to stand for something “dark”, I and the kids participate not to celebrate its dark nature but merely to enjoy the artistic, non-spooky decor, the cute and creative costumes and the of course, the treats. 🙂 Therefore, as far as we’re concerned, our participation in Halloween celebration is in no way related to the dark and evil. It’s a mere decoration and costume celebration and nothing else. And hey, this is the only time I can put them in costumes which I find soooo adorably cute so better take the chance! Hehe! 🙂 But I never dress up the kids in spooky, devil-ish costumes and I have never transformed into a creepy creature. I’m totally not for spooky Halloween.

Every year since I had a kid, we participate in Halloween events in my office. As what I’ve said, I enjoy transforming my kids into cutesie little thingies. 😀

Big Boy J was Shrek at his first Trick or Treat in my previous company when he was 8 months old. Adorable, isn’t he? 🙂

The Big Boy’s first Trick or Treat 🙂

I wasn’t able to prepare for his costume the following year so I just dressed him up as a pirate. He joined the Trick or Treat at his Dad’s office.

He apparently didn’t like wearing the pirate’s hat and boots. 😀

I had 2 kids to dress up last year so I had to come up with a theme! 🙂 Old MacDonald Had a Farm was an easy but cute last-minute idea. 😀

Big Boy J as the farmer, the Little Princess A at 6 months as a chick and Mommy as a babywearing nest. 🙂

Themed Halloween costumes is a must now for the two kids. This year, I had more time to think about their costumes but I had to consider the time and ease of preparing everything because I was dressing up 2 kids. I searched the internet and decided to come up with something like these:

Photo by Diary of a Crafty Lady

Photo by At Second Street

Via Diary of a Crafty Lady / At Second Street

I’m not a Harry Potter fan. Never read the book nor watched the movie. So I just relied on the internet for ideas and validated it through my office friends who read and watched Harry Potter. 🙂 Big Boy J was the Harry Potter of course, the Little Princess A was the cute Hedwig. 🙂

Don’t they look so adorable? 🙂

How did I pull off the Harry Potter themed costumes of the 2 kiddos? I had more than a week to prepare so I thought of reusing some available stuff at home, doing some DIYs and using some ready-made items. I had fun putting together their costumes! 🙂

Let’s start with Harry Potter. I listed down the HP elements that I would need. Basically the following:

• Robe
• White polo
• Gray vest
• Black pants
• Red and gold necktie
• Red and gold scarf
• Round eyeglasses
• Wand
• Broomstick
• Spell book treat bag which the idea I got from Diary of a Crafty Lady

To start everything, I asked my ever-reliable and supportive mother-in-law to help me sew the HP robe. She’s my go-to person when it comes to stitching and sewing stuff since I don’t have a sewing machine and I don’t know how to sew…yet. But I’m gonna learn soon. 🙂 I’m just so blessed that my MIL also enjoys crafting such things especially for her grandchildren. 🙂

Trying on the robe specially made by Lola with love. 🙂 As usual, I forced him to put it on. 😀

For the clothes, I pulled out of the closet the white long sleeved polo and black pants that the Big Boy wore when he became his Ninang’s ring bearer at her wedding last year. The Big Boy didn’t have a tie so I searched SM Megamall department store and fortunately found a maroon tie for only P49. 🙂 I didn’t want to spend so much on it so I just thought of putting some gold or yellow stripes by sewing or painting with a fabric pastel. I ended up keeping it as it is. And btw, a very unfortunate thing happened on the tie. I burned it while ironing! 😦 But nothing much to lose because it only costs P49 and will be hidden with a scarf anyway. 😀

Poor tie 😦 😀

I bought the gray vest also at SM for P399. I splurged on this because the Big Boy can use it in the future for casual or formal attire. The round glasses was also from SM for P149. I just asked hubby to remove the dark lenses and I don’t know how he did it. 😀 Yay, Dad had a participation in their costumes! 😀 I also got the broomstick from SM for P79. This was a serendipitous find because I was planning on DIY-ing it but realized I didn’t have resources for the materials needed.

Voila! HP glasses! 🙂

The scarf was the most challenging part for me as I couldn’t find a readily available one. I was at the Fashion Market (tiangge) section of Market! Market! and found a cheap maroon Pashmina at P100 so I decided to buy it and just do something about it. I thought of just getting a yellow or gold cloth to sew on the Pashmina and while looking for the right fabric to use, I discovered this red-and-yellow-striped-a-la FC Barcelona fabric for P180/yard. It took time before I finally made up my mind and use this instead for the scarf to save time from sewing. I also knew I can make an FCB item (a hybrid fitted cloth probably 😀 ) out of it since my husband is an FCB fan. P180 spend justified! 😀

The “FCB” fabric turned HP scarf.

I sought the help of the kids’ caregiver/yaya to handsew the scarf since I didn’t have enough time to do it myself as much as I would want to. I think I should get one soon and I’ll elaborate why later. 🙂

Next is the wand. I tried looking for a ready-made one but to no avail. So I was left with no choice but to DIY and I was surprised to find out that it was just so easy peasy to make! All I needed were chopstick, glue gun and paint which I all have and simply followed this tutorial from Micah C Micah Do that I got from Pieces by Polly. Apparently though, what I had with me were brown and silver poster paint instead of acrylic and poster paint peels on wood so I just coated it with a colorless nail polish. So chic, right? Hehe!

“Alohomora” 😀

Instead of using a pumpkin basket, I wanted the treat bag to blend with the Harry Potter theme. I borrowed the idea from Diary of a Crafty Lady and tweaked it a bit. I used a brown paper bag instead of sewing a felt cloth, and wrapped the bag with brown felt paper leaving the bottom and the right side to resemble a book. Then I printed a “Book of Spells” text I downloaded from the internet, cut the letters and glued them on the bag. I just added some stripes on the side to make it look like a book. I wanted to add some more embellishment on the “cover” but I already ran out of time.

The spell book bag big enough for lots of treats! Hehe!

And now, for Hedwig. From this inspiration, I needed the following:

• White cloth to be made into a sort of cape and sleeveless shirt/dress covered with feathers
• Crocheted white owl hat which I could easily buy online OR DIY using a white bonnet and some scrap fabric or cloth
• White long sleeves
• White leggings
• HP acceptance letter treat bag inspired also by Diary of a Crafty Lady

I discussed the idea with my MIL and I guess she got overwhelmed because admittedly, it’s quite tedious to make. 😀 I actually wanted to do it myself make it my trial project but as I mentioned, I do not have a sewing machine. But my MIL loves my kids so much that she just bought a ready-made owl cape! 🙂 It’s not white but not a big deal at all. Though I thought of hand sewing white feathers but thankfully I totally let go of that idea because probably I’m still sewing until now. I’m exaggerating of course but you get the point.

The cutie owl cape! 🙂

Btw, I was planning on being part of the kids’ costumes just like last year by babywearing the Little Princess thus, the cape design of the owl so that it will spread and cover the baby carrier. I thought of being a tree, where the owl lives obviously by simply wearing brown pants and green top and probably just sticking some leaf cutouts on my shirt. Dressing up as a cage also crossed my mind but I realized it was too ambitious so I just stuck with the tree. Haha! But come trick or treating time, I didn’t get to go around with the kiddos because I was dressed up as the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland as part of our department’s decor. Good thing I didn’t change and remained to be the Red Queen instead because I won as one of the best in costumes! Haha! 🙂 I’m not going to post a picture of me in my Red Queen costume anymore. I’m shy. Haha! No, I couldn’t find a nice shot, most are blurred so I’ll just leave to your imagination the look of a Queen of Hearts in a P29 red wig and cheap make-up. 😀

Going back to Hedwig. 😀 The owl cape problem was solved, I just needed the shirt or dress with feathers. When I was in Market! Market!’s tiangge fashion section, I saw a P50 white tank top and I immediately knew that’s what I was looking for. Also bought a yard of light gray Geena cloth at Cotton Touch in Market! Market! for P30 to use as feathers along with the old white shirts I no longer use at home. So the tracing and cutting began, then sewing them all on the white tank top. It took me 2 nights to finish the “shirt feathers”. Just the front part, take note. So I decided not to continue it to the back. The cape would cover it anyway. I knew I made the best decision not to sew the owl cape with feathers to make it white because it will take me forever! Ha!

Trace and cut then all prepared for sewing!

I partnered the shirt feathers with a pair of white leggings for P150 from SM. I discovered and I had a hunch that the tiangges have it too, in a cheaper fabric though, for only P50. Too late. 😦 Moving on, a white long sleeve shirt was also part of the plan which was supposed to serve as an inner for the shirt feathers but the best one I found after a long search had no size for the Little Princess and I find the price at P399 to be steep for its purpose. Bye bye inner shirt. Besides, the shirt feathers alone already did it’s job plus it would be too hot for the Little Princess if I added a white longsleeved shirt.

I finished it! Yay! Handsewn with love 🙂

And finally, to complete the Hedwig costume, the treat bag! 🙂 From what I learned from my research, Hedwig is Harry Potter’s messenger so I used the acceptance letter as the design for the treat bag, similar to what Diary of a Crafty Lady did. Same with the HP treat bag, I also used a paper bag, a white horizontal (or in landscape orientation) one. Then I printed on a white bond paper Harry Potter’s address using the original font used in the envelope, the 4 Privet Drive Regular, that I downloaded from 10 Digits Design. I couldn’t thank more the person who made this font because I was already at the verge of giving up finding a file that bears the Harry Potter’s address that I could enlarge and print. He was heaven sent! 😀 I pasted the address on one side of the paper bag to serve as the front side of the “envelope”. Afterwhich, I cut and glued pieces of white cartolina to form the back side of the envelope. I used a long brown envelope as a pattern. Then I printed the Hogwarts logo and the red seal and glued them to “seal” the “envelope”.

Ready to be carried by Hedwig to be filled with candies! 🙂

Here are Harry Potter and Hedwig enjoying all their treats! 🙂

Treat bags all filled with treats! 🙂

There goes our Harry Potter and Hedwig Halloween! ‘Till next year! 🙂