Making a Dementor

If you don’t know what a dementor is, I suggest taking your booty to the nearest store and buying the entire Harry Potter series.

Anyway, four days ago there was a Harvest Fest in my area. I live in a farming community, so harvest is a huge thing. And the festival is a celebration not only in that, but in Halloween and in marking the end of the farmers market until next summer. This year, Kathy (the lovely lady who was in charge of everything) themed it Hogwarts. And it was incredible. The past two years I came to Harvest Fest in creepy costumes (a possessed deer and the Red Death), so she asked me to do something creepy again this year. So, what did we decide?

A 7 foot 4 inch dementor.

Here’s how I did it:

Starting with the mechanic that gave me an extra foot and five inches. I had a foam circle (Hobby Lobby) that I super glued the bottom of small football shoulder pads (found a used one at a thrift store for four bucks) onto. The circle went on top of my head, and I put some elastic on the circle as a chin strap so it can stay in place. I later also put some elastic on to support the back of my head.

I got a foam head (Hobby Lobby) that I totally carved out to look a little more bony, or at the very least deformed. Once his ears, nose, eyes, and mouth were gone, I painted him brown.

Turns out dementors are grey (oops), so I repainted the head and blacked out some deformities. Then I painted him around some more just to make him even more ugly. Once he was ugly enough, I super glued him to the shoulder pads, which made him 7’4″.

Then I made some hands. I used a tutorial I found on Pinterest (linked here), and made them a little thicker and more grey. Once they were dry completely, I super glued them to a pair of cheap black gloves (Dollar Tree). That way I was able to move my hands and even grab stuff I need to. I also glued little clasps to the back, and later sewed clasps to the sleeves so my real arms didn’t show and he was just a mess of black fabric.

Making the cloak took an approximate of 10 yards of fabric (Hobby Lobby and Walmart). I grossly hand-sewed the fabrics together, ripping and cutting where I wanted to look absolutely disheveled. The very last piece of fabric that went on was the hood over the fake head. I glued the top of his head to the fabric so it would stay in place, and bunched the fabric on the side so it shaped the head better. (Also, thanks to Vladimir who tested the mechanic).

I wore all black under the cloak (duh) and went out to the Fest. Thanks to the way it was made, I was able to walk around, move my arms (aka reach out to little kids to scare them shitless), bend, and nod when someone asked for a picture. I would make the cloak a little shorter than it was because I did trip on it a bit. The only real issue I had was the mechanic at the top was supported by my head, which did bruise the next day.

Overall, I had a blast. The pain was worth it, and everyone loved it. The costume itself took an approximate 35-50 hours to make and cost about 40 dollars to make. The most expensive stuff was the fabric. I don’t know when I’ll bust this guy out again, but he was awesome to have even for just the Fest.

Hugs

Alexandra