Costuming McGonagall from Harry Potter

Professor Minerva McGonagall is my favorite Potterverse character. She’s the true hero, and anyone who says otherwise can fight me. She has many classic looks in the films, but the one that captivated me the most was her outfit at the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Stunning olive dress robes with dramatic sleeves, a fierce collar, and pointy witch hat…what’s not to love? And true to my habit of making a costume with little screen time and challenging builds, I had to make it and as close to screen accurate as possible. It’s one of my proudest achievements.

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Of course with so little screen time, there aren’t a lot of reference photos out there, so I watched the scene several dozen times and found a few images for reference. Thankfully I could see the entire costume from head to toe and front to side to back when she dances with Dumbledore. I was able to note which parts of the costume were solid, striped, pintucked, pointy, and flowy.

Finding a fabric online was challenging. Not sure how close I could get to the accuracy of her robes, I was originally looking for both solid (easy) and pintucked (more difficult) fabric. All the pintucked fabric that I found were >2″ spaced, and I wanted 1″ to 1.5″. So I made a trip to High Fashion Fabrics in Houston and found the holy grail! In the back corner was a wide roll of striped olive organza (maybe organdy, I’m not exactly sure). It was slightly sheer, so I knew I’d need to use it for fashion and liner, or use it for fashion plus buy a liner. Whichever I’d decide later, but I loved it so much I bought what was left of the roll. I think it was about 12 yards, maybe more!

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Before I could even get started on piecing the robes, I had to diamond (or square, whatever) pintuck yards and yards and yards of fabric. McGonagall’s sleeves, collar, back V, and center front pieces were al pintucked. I mounted a laser pointer to my sewing machine with velcro and stitched my pintucks with 1.25″ spacking. Y’all…this took an entire month of weekends and a shit ton of thread. Some of my lines good wavy and wonky spaced, but this prep work turned this costume into such a labor of love, and I hadn’t eve started cutting yet!

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With the hard part over, I could get to cutting and piecing! The closest pattern I could find to her robes was the Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time. McCall’s 6818 (view C) would have to do it, with modifications of course. I completely remade the collar piece, knew the sleeves would need major changes (later in this post), cut a V at the top of bodice back, and added a panel to the bodice front. At this point I used the striped olive fabric for both fashion and liner, so I was glad I bought the whole role. Maggie Smith was around 70 when she played McGonagall, and since my body is not quite there yet, I kept the waistline of my robes at my natural waist instead of higher up on hers. I also elected to not add darts in the chest since pieces 1 and 2 already created curvature there. These were non-screen accurate changes I’m totally fine with.

M6818 pattern: McCall’s M6818 Women’s Gothic Vampire Costume Sewing Patterns, Sizes 12-20

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Piecing the robes together, minus the sleeves, was super easy and super fast. I had a bit of a mental block against the sleeves, so I got over the hump by working on the underdress and accessories. I found a vintage black long sleeve turtleneck maxi dress on Etsy and used that as a foundation piece. I ordered a 3 layer “chiffon” skirt on Amazon that would become an overskirt, dickie, and sleeve cuffs. I left 2 layers in place and used one of the layers to make the dickie and cuffs. I gathered fabric in the center of the dickie with black elastic and sewed the dickie to the skirt. The pointy sleeve cuffs are detachable with velcro in case I want to remake or replace the turtleneck dress in the future. I also worked with a vendor on Etsy to create McGonagall’s witch hat with olive band, black ribbon cockade, and black pheasant feathers. Fiona of Royal House of Whimsy did such a great job on the hat!

Skirt: v28 Women Full/Ankle Length Elastic Retro Maxi Chiffon Long Skirt (XL,Black)

Lace obi belt: Lovful Women’s Bowknot Lace Self Tie Belts Obi Waist Band Cinch Wide Boho Belt,Black

Witch hat: Everyday Black Wizard/Witch Hat- Straight Top

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These damn sleeves…there was a bit of an evolution. I stupidly cut the sleeve pieces from M6818 before realizing there was no seam at the elbow, so I used the 9 and 11 pieces to make a mock-up out of an old tablecloth. The mockup was okayish…I cut it up and modified the mock-up a to be more bulbous and for a seam visible from the front that opens at the elbow. I hate making mock-ups but I wasn’t about to ruin pintucked fabric on my mistakes. The resulting pattern piece resembled a pomegranate, which I cut 4 (for fabric and liners) from the pintucked fabric. To get the fun points at the top of the sleeve, I extended the 9 pattern piece shape 4″ at the top, folded the top down to the original position, and stitched the two top sides like an open teepee (see pink paper mock-up above). I also added interfacing for stiffness.

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I finished her up with two silver buttons, but stitched in a black frog closure on the inside. The pin pictured above wasn’t in the scene but I wanted to wear it anyway (I’m unable to find it again online, sorry). And her wand for extra sass.

Wand: Wizarding World of Harry Potter Professor Mcgonagall Wand Replica

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The first time I wore this costume was at a small costuming convention in Dallas, AllCon. The building across the street had a pretty cool copper looking garage door where we took our pictures. My husband is pictured above in his Gryffinfor costume.

[Related: Costuming a Hufflepuff from Harry Potter]

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The second time wearing this costume was at Costume College, where I knew the other attendees would recognize and appreciate the hard work that went into all those bloody pintucks. This time I attempted old lady make-up and greyish hair.

[Related: Costume College 2019: A First Timer’s Recap]

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And again at DragonCon in 2019 where I attempted even more grey hair with dry shampoo that should never be used as actual dry shampoo. I didn’t get any good photos at the con, but I did sit in a box like a cat.

Dry shampoo that really should be grey hair spray: Love Beauty and Planet Shampoo for Unisex, Citrus Peel Uplifting Dry, 4.3 Ounce

“Have a biscuit, Potter.” – Professor Minerva McGonagall

More Harry Potter costumes on Red Shoes. Red Wine.

Costuming Quidditch from Harry Potter: The Uniform

Costuming Quidditch from Harry Potter: Training Robes

Costuming Quidditch from Harry Potter: The Pads

Costuming a Hufflepuff from Harry Potter

Costuming Molly Weasley from Harry Potter

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