(Warning- this explanation assumes some knowledge of sewing and patterns-may be confusing for beginners!)

Take the shoulder yoke pattern piece, split it where a shoulder seam should be, and add a seam allowance to the shoulder seam.

Pin the front yoke pattern piece to the front, overlapping the stitching lines and cut the front out as one piece. Take off the front neck/shoulder piece and attach the back piece in the same way- cut out the back panels as one piece, minus the yoke seam. (The body of the front and back are identical- it is only the yoke/ neckline that is different.)

So you have in effect eliminated the yoke seam on both the front and back panels of the robe, and instead inserted a standard shoulder seam.

If you want to be just like the Movie, cut light black cotton or peachskin lining out using the same pattern pieces. Lining does not look shiny, so don't use satin or polyester lining fabric.

The sleeves are pretty good just as drafted. Do a lined sleeve if you want to be exactly like the movie. (Lining can be seen in the Flying lessons scene when the kids hold out their arms to command their brooms "up".) The fullness of these sleeves is perfect for small adults and children, you might want to increase the fullness for larger adults, but this will require redrafting both this pattern and the armscye of the body patterns- not for the faint of heart!

The hood pattern is Ok if you want a hood- but the robes in the Movie do not have hoods- they have a collar that resembles the mock hoods used on scholar/ graduation robes. If you want a hood, you will probably want to eliminate the point on the hood- just cut it off and round off the back of the head area. If you line the hood with the same fabric as the robe, it lays in a manner similar to the scholarly collar, but still can be used as a functional hood if you want to play Deatheater.

If you want to have a collar just like in the movie, take your neck line measurement, and add in about 6-8 inches. Cut two half circles of material with the straight edge of the 1/2 circle being your neck measurment plus 6-8 inches. If the half circle looks like it is too long when held to the back of the neck, then flatten it, and make it more of a half oval shape. Collar should fall to shoulderblade level, no further. Effect is more like a half oval than a half circle.

Pin your half circles of material together and stitch along the arc of the 1/2 circle, clip, and turn right side out. Press, and top stitch the edge if you like

Pin CB(Straight edge) of the top layer of the collar to cb seam of your robe. Pin the right side of your collar to the inside of your robe neck, so that the seams stick up.

Pin points of the collar to your finished front opening edges of your robe. Take 2-3 pleats starting about 1 1/2- 2 inches from the cf opening, to take up the extra collar material. The pleats should lay in front of the shoulder seam and on top of the shoulder seam, so that when the neckline folds open lapel style in a v, the pleats are visible where the neckline lays open Lapel style. Pleats should open to the front, with the folded in material laying back towards the shoulder/ back of the neck.)

Finish pinning top layer of the collar, sew. Press under seam allowance of the bottom layer of collar, Pin in place, enclosing the seam allowances with the collar itself. Take pleats in the same place whre pleats were taken on the top layer of the collar. Hand stitch the underseam of the collar closed- this will be hidden underneath the collar, so it doesn't need to be anything fancy, but by hand stitching it, you won't mess up the way the collar lays by having topstitching coming thru to the top side of the collar/neckline whre it lays open.

For a good look at the collar in the movie, watch the scene ethey are entering the great hall and heading for the sorting hat- you get a great view of the back of one of the students as they are walking in, and this scene, along with the flying class scene are well enough lit that you can see the pleats at the neck and the way the semicircular collar falls.

If you want to get a good look at a real example of this collar type, go to your local toy store, and check out the large Talking Hermione Granger doll- the one that comes with a cauldron and snap beads that pop togeter. (She is larger than a barbie, but not by a whole lot.) She is wearing a doll sized robe that has this very collar on it- tho the doll sized one is made from a single layer of fabric. Study this robe! It seems to have been copied directly form the ones in PS/SS!!!!

The hard plastic robes on the action figures are pretty hopeless- some have hoods, some collars, and some seem to be based only on what would suit the medium. (Like Snapes, which are way different than what he actually wore!)

**revision notes**

The basic shape I gave for the collar before is about right, but I found it necessary to do a little draping to get it to lay better. Instead of a straight edge on the half circle shape, I has to curve the straight edge corners into the curve of the hem, making it more of an "Eye" shape, and then do a little shaping on the neckline at CB.

The neckline of this pattern is very large, since it is a One-size- fits-all pattern, and this posed more of a problem than I expected. The collar does not lay right unless the shoulders and chest fit well enough to get the "lapels" to pull back properly on their own- just folding them back does not give the right tension to the collar- it looks too floppy. The neckline of HP style robes needs to be fitted to make it lay properly- makes perfect sens in retrospect, since nothing else on this gament is fitted!

So, in "Robes Mark II" I will be a much more fitted neck and shoulder area of the garment.

Again, on the one size does not fit all. I am a small to average size person. (Wear a small to Medium when buying off the rack, wear about a size 8-10, and stand about 5ft 5inches) and these robes are rally sloppy on me. On a larger person, they would look, and hang much better.

The sleeves had to be hemmed up around 6 inches (So lining them would have been pointless) because they would have hung down past my fingertips, and the hem, likewise, had to be hemmed up about 6 inches, and the robes are still floor, not ankle length. Unless you are very tall, or much larger than I, You can use a less fabric when making this pattern and not miss it a bit- If you are about my height, or only a couple inches taller, then chop about 4 inches off of hem and sleeve before you start cutting, and save yourself almost a yard of fabric.