Fleur Delacour | 2013

Fleur Delacour – Beauxbatons Uniform | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Made for : Auckland Armageddon Expo 2013

Background : One of my favourite Harry Potter books is the Goblet of Fire. I adore the Quidditch World Cup, the Triwizard Tournament, and everything in-between.
Something I was really looking forward to seeing done in the film was the Yule Ball and the foreign wizard attire.
I immediately fell in love with the Beauxbatons uniform. It’s so elegant and floaty. I knew I’d be making it someday.
I chose to make it for Armageddon Expo that year because I was fresh back from my trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando and was very much hyped up on everything Potter.

Things used :

Hat : I read a tutorial somewhere online about wet forming felt on hatblocks. So I made a hat block out of a styrafoam head and duct tape.
The tutorial either failed to mention or I neglected to read the part where it said to use 100% wool felt. I brought acrylic felt.
I wet it with boiling water and attempted to stretch it over my make-shift hat block and it kinda worked? With a little bit of strategic stitching and snipping a hat shape somewhat emerged.

Wig : It was a blonde lacefront that I think I had brought from BodyFX back when they used to sell decent wigs. All I did was tie it in a low ponytail and curl two of the front fringe pieces on either side.

Capelette and Dress : I chose bemsilk because I knew nothing about fabrics at the time, read the word “silk” saw the cheap price and got super excited. Turns out bemsilk is not silk but a thin lining fabric made from acetate. Not at all suitable for what I wanted it for but I made do.

I followed both of the patterns pretty much as were, just adding a collar to the capelette and tweaking the sleeves and collar shape on the dress. It was my first time trying to change a pattern shape. I was trying to make the collar and cuffs pointy ala the Beauxbatons way but I ended up having them point inward rather than outward.

The cape and the dress were both lined with poly cotton because I was yet to discover other fabrics existed.

Shoes : Now the shoes I was super proud of, so much so that I still have them to this day! I found a pair of t-bar heels in the perfect shade of periwinkle blue from Number One Shoes that were such a great base.
I cut shapes out of some navy leather scraps and covered the heel and toe and added the fringe across the t-bar strap. They were stuck on with shoe glue and are still stuck as I type.

Wand : My dad made the base of the wand using a length of dowel and some wooden beads. He added an LED light to one end and had the wiring run down the length of the wand to a hidden battery in the base. Then it was passed to me.
I sculpted the designs on the wand using a 2 part Apoxie mix with some EVA foam for the leaf details. The whole thing was then painted using acrylic paint.