Bellatrix and Voldemort Costumes

Since I get so many great ideas for crafts and costumes and parties online, I thought it would be nice to share with everyone on the web how I made our Harry Potter themed costumes.

First, we had to decide on which characters to be. Since he saw Order of the Phoenix and read the last two books, Shawn has really loved Voldemort (yes, my husband thinks Voldemort is cool). So I thought that Shawn could be the Dark Lord and I could be his most devoted follower, Bellatrix Lestrange.

I started by researching the characters and looking at images from the movies. Here is an idea of what the characters look like in the movie. Bellatrix (played by Helena Bonham Carter)...

Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes)...

The two together looking very evil...

Now, this is only one interpretation of how Bellatrix and Voldemort could look. In the book, they are illustrated differently (Bellatrix has a bit more uni-brow and her hair's not so permy looking and Voldemort has a hood and, of course, red slits for eyes). We decided to be more inspired by the movie since it was the movie we were going to see.

Here's what I came up for both of us...

Now here's the details...

Bellatrix:

I found the dress to make this costume by browsing my local thrift stores. You can get absolutely great deals at these places and it's wonderful to give old clothes a second life. I found everything for both our costumes at the Salvation Army near our house. I found a long-sleeved, long black dress that fit me pretty well and a shirt with sheer sleeves that had laces up the front. Though the actual costume from the movie has a more v-neck cut and a corset, I decided that the shirt was enough in the spirit of Bellatrix to go with it.

I removed the sleeves from the dress and also the sheer sleeves from the shirt. I then poked five holes in the shirt and sleeve and laced it through with black beading cord that I got from a craft store (any cord that looks like faux leather will work). I cannot sew to save my life, so this worked perfectly.

I used the extra cord to lace up the front of the shirt in order to give the sleeves and front a cohesive feel.

I cut the dress to the length I wanted (just using scissors, I figured the jagged look would add to the crazy appearance of the costume). I also paired it with black boots that I already had. Then I wore the shirt over the dress and voila...

I could have gone crazy and hand painted some swirls on the dress like on the movie costume, but I was afraid that I would mess them up and ruin my outfit (plus that would be rather time consuming), so I left the outfit plain black.

I wish I could have found a better replica of her necklace, but I made due with a stone which looked like it might be an okay shape which I pained dark gray. I then attached that to a thick black cord necklace I found at the craft store as well. The other jewelry - which was mainly just lots of silver rings and a black bracelet - I borrowed from friends. The dark mark I got as a tattoo on eBay. I made the wand using this great tutorial. It recommends making the wand out of paper, but I just bought large knitting needles and painted them to save time (there are some wonderful photos with wand decorating ideas on the link as well). This is my favorite picture mostly because one does not picture Bellatrix with a cat calender in her kitchen.

My hair turned out the worst, I thought. I tried curling it, moussing it, teasing it, and spraying it, but it's just too flat too get as high as Helena Bonham Carter's. I could have gone with a more simple look or bought a wig or (as I thought of at 3AM) pulled the front part back and pushed it up for the illusion of more volume. I also gave myself a little gray with a can of silver hairspray.

Voldemort:

First, we had to figure out how to do the face. Shawn could have worn a bald cap and painted his entire face and head white, but that seemed like overkill and we knew there was almost no way to make the snake-like nose look real. I saw that Warner Brothers has a Voldemort mask that they sell so we opted to buy that. I found one on eBay again and bought it, along with some Voldemort hands.

I will tell you, we were not too happy with the quality of the mask when we got it. Unless you have a giant head, the mask will look incredibly oversized (I assume they make it big so it has the one-size-fits-all quality). I had to pin it with a clothespin in the back to make it look a little less bulky but Voldemort's head still looks pretty large. The Voldemort outfit is made up of black pants, black shoes, a black turtle neck shirt, and a black graduation gown (which I also found at Salvation Army). The final touch was to buy a stuffed snake from the zoo to serve as Nagini.

Shawn was not too keen on the mask once we got it. I thought it would look more realistic, but it kind of just looked silly. However, we didn't really have any other options. We discussed the bald cap and makeup, but agreed that it was just too much. The mask worked perfectly because Shawn could take it on and off when he needed to.

Aside from being kind of over-sized, the Voldemort mask is pretty scary. Shawn kept freaking me out by staring at me and swooshing his wand around rather villainously. I think he also scared a few younger kids at the movie (and Lizzie got upset every time she saw it in the house). The great part about the mask and hands was that Shawn was able to take them off and enjoy the movie without having makeup all over his face.

My friend, Kristina, also dressed up. She was Narcissa Malfoy. She found an awesome green suit at a thrift store for $4 and put a streak of brown in her blonde hair (that's how Mrs. Malfoy wears her hair in the movie version). I thought it looked pretty great!

Here's all three of us together!

Shawn really was the hit of the day. He must have had 20 or 30 people come up to him and ask to take pictures with him (Voldemort is a popular guy!). Plus, he is a ham in costume. I think he liked playing the part, too. Once you get him dressed up, there’s no stopping him!

-- Lisa