Hogwarts Founders Costumes

A thousand years or more ago, when I was newly sewn, there lived four wizards of renown, whose names were widely known...
My friends and I decided to go as the Hogwarts Founders to parts of LeakyCon... and these are our costumes.
Obviously we went for a much younger version of the Founders... I had all sorts of complicated research about their suspected homelands, and the time period in which they would have lived, but in the end, I ended up with a more strait-up medieval/renaissance look (with the exception of Gryffindor's cape, which is probably my favorite part of the whole project- it was supposed to be reminiscent of a Roman soldier's cape, or at least my idea of what one looks like. I freely admit that idea was mostly formed by Rory's Roman getup in season 5 of Doctor Who). Also: yes, I am blonde, and Ravenclaw is not supposed to be, but my hair doesn't hold with at-home hair dye, and I was not about to even attempt wearing a wig in July in Florida, outside. And my friend only brought one pair of shoes, so Salazar is, indeed, wearing lady shoes :)

I made the majority of it, apart from a few finishing details my friend's mom did on her Hufflepuff dress, and the tricksy parts of my Ravenclaw dress, which were done by my mom (moms are awesome, in case anyone was in any doubt). I used three-and-a-quarter patterns (Simplicity 4059 for the Slytherin and Gryffindor vests, McCall's 4490 and part of the sleeve of Simplicity 2573 for Ravenclaw, and Butterick 4571 without the long sleeves for Hufflepuff). Most of them I modified as I went. The capes are just rectangles of linen-looking fabric; Slytherin's is closed permanently, I found a hair clip thing to close Gryffindor's cape.
I made Slytherin's "locket" (it's not a real locket, in the functional sense) from clay, acrylic paint and crystal beads (you can't really see it in the pictures). My diadem started out as a metal headband, I added wire elements and some clay/paint and flat-backed plastic rhinestones. My friend painted her cup and glued more of the rhinestones onto it. She also made this awesome clay badger engraving that's glued onto the front. We painted and glued shiny things onto a wooden sword from the local medieval fair for Gryffindor's sword. I made a belt-loop thing for it, and a belt and wand-holster for Slytherin.
I had a lot of random fabric lying around (the remnant bin is my bestest non-living friend), so this didn't cost us nearly as much as it would have if I had had to actually buy fabric for everything; my Ravenclaw dress is principally made out of bedsheets (I hit up Ross, found microfiber sheets in the right color for around 12 bucks- full or queen size was perfect for me, but you might be able to get away with a twin if you are really really tiny). I did have to buy the brocades I used in the shirt cuffs, the lining of Slytherin's tunic, and for Gryffindor's vest, but I used a 1/2 yard or less of each design, and got it on sale, so it wasn't as bad. I tried to make everything in cotton or something like it, so they wouldn't be so hot, but we ended up not being able to find anything suitable for Hufflepuff, so we went ultra fancy with the satin/brocade skirt (again, needed less than 1/2 a yard of the brocade, and the satin came from walmart super cheap). The top was made of leftover fabric from the robes my friend made last year.
We got all of this done in about a month or so (in between class, catching up on Vlogbrothers videos and rereading the first four Harry Potter books), though if I had been able to sew nonstop, it probably would have taken a week or so. I'm particularly proud of the Gryffindor and Slytherin costumes, since they came out almost perfectly the first time and I was making them for people that live several hundred miles away, so I couldn't actually fit them until a few days before we left for LeakyCon.