Maybe Matilda: Nerd Alert: A Harry Potter T-Shirt

Friday, July 15, 2011

Nerd Alert: A Harry Potter T-Shirt

My sister Bekah has made brief appearances on my blog before, and like it or not, you're going to get to know her a little better today. #1 fact to know about Bekah? HUGE Harry Potter nerd. Seriously. Huge. I love me some Harry Potter, too, but this girl puts me and my fandom to shame. If I'm not mistaken, she's re-read all the books in the series every summer since they first came out. It wouldn't surprise me much if they are the only books she has ever read.

More proof of her tremendous nerdiness:
1) The other day, she met a guy who said he worked in smelting. Like any hardcore HP fan, she immediately said, "Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley!", an obscure reference to the 1st book. When he was confused, she began acting out, in painstaking detail, the entire scene, until she realized she looked like a crazy person and sidled awkwardly out of the room.

2) When she came to my house the other day and saw a piece of dowel left over from a project I'll be showing you soon, she picked it up and said, "Is this your wand?", then pointed it at me and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Thank goodness she went with a harmless spell.

3) I once called her at 11 at night because it was driving me crazy that I couldn't remember the name of the tub-thingy that Dumbledore used to store memories in (think fast! Do you know what it's called?). Over the phone, I said, "Bekah, what's that thing in Dumbledore's office--" and she said, "The pensieve." Just like that. She knew what it was. I hadn't described it yet. Unbelievable!

So I shouldn't have been surprised when she called me yesterday morning in a tizzy because she didn't have a Harry Potter t-shirt to wear on this most important of days. We brainstormed a bit . . . my favorite idea was a t-shirt that would say, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," on the front, and "Mischief managed" on the back (a tribute to the Marauder's Map, of course), and she wanted to recreate this Harry Potter pillow on a t-shirt (too much work).

So we settled for something a little more subtle out of necessity (the necessity being we only had about an hour, and I didn't have many supplies on hand):

Just a simple tribute to the boy who lived, made with a cardstock stencil (not the smartest idea, for the record, but I couldn't find my freezer paper) and acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium. I was going to protect the poor girl from internet scorn by cropping her wand out of the picture, as shown above, but what the hey, I know she's not ashamed of this:

That's my girl. What a dork.

(If I decide I enjoy feedback from strangers more than I enjoy keeping random blog readers from laughing at my family [which I do], I'll link this up to some of these bad boys.)

31 comments :

  1. This post made me laugh! What a clever idea. It looks like she loves it. :)

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  2. I think this is so great!!! Your sister is adorable and I am with her but I would never remember what is in dumbledore's office.
    so fun!!!!
    ladeedacreations.com
    following you now

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  3. Dude. I totally made a Harry Potter shirt too. Mine says "I'm with the Muggle -->" on the back. Haven't posted it yet because I accidentally got a dot of fabric paint on the front (ugh) and I'm trying to figure out a way to get fabric paint out of it. But it's awesome :)

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    1. Is the paint in an area where you could cover it up with...say...a lightning bolt? felt, fabric or painted on.

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    2. Lordy, I just realized I'm just a few months late.... :)

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  4. Love it! I think I need one :)

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  5. O Lol'd at #1 and then thought to myself "wait...other people don't know that reference?" I guess because I'm also a Harry Potter fan at heart. Also, I love that 9 3/4 shirt, it's a cute one without being in-your-face Harry Potter.

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  6. Your sister sounds awesome, and I love the shirt! My sister and I just made the doily tees you posted and we love them--thanks for the idea :)

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  7. Love this!!!

    I like the Mischief Managed T-shirt idea too. Ok dork alert I would totally wear one like that like um tomorrow. Shhh Don't tell. HAHA

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  8. Love the subtlety of the shirt. Your post has given me the guts to share an embarrassingly funny dream I had a few years ago. Being a Harry Potter fan myself, I had a dream that I was Harry Potter. I used spells, yada yada whatever. The embarrassing part comes when I woke up and remembered my dream. I was getting ready and suddenly actually wondered for a second if I really could do a spell. I positioned my hand, palm open to a shoe in my closet and said "Accio Shoe". Needless to say I started laughing because I felt like such a fool :).

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  9. FYI--Contact paper works great for stencils on t-shirts. I have used it successfully on several projects, including this t-shirt for my son:

    http://cardboardcrafter.blogspot.com/2011/05/project-ideas-2-t-shirts-are-awesome.html

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  10. ooooh! I need one to wear to work in the library!

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  11. I love it! I may need to make one of these just to wear everyday. I'm a HP lover too, and saw the premiere myself last night. Man I've been so tired all day too!

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  12. LOVE it! We're going to see it tomorrow and I get all weepy just thinking about it! At least we can all be united in nerdom right - LOL!

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  13. It's precious. And I do think you should make the "mischief managed" into a tee too.

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  14. Oh man I just love it! I am a Harry Potter Fan, but not to an extreme, I really want to make my next baby a Muggle Born shirt!

    Carlee
    www.ladybirdln.com

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  15. Ok, loved the nerd post! I had to read it to my hubby, and showed him a pic of the shirt. He didn't get it and I had to explain it. His response "yeah, it's not that nerdy if your wife has to explain it to you." LOL - I'm sure he would've gotten ANY obscure reference to Star Wars though!

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  16. Love it. I'm a HP "nerd" too!

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  17. Nerd? Nah. We saw the film last night it was the best yet!

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  18. I loVE siblings.

    I lOVEd your idea for the Harry POtter T-shirt.

    How did the fabric medium work? I have loads and loads of acrylic paint but still buy the super expensive fabric paint instead of trying the medium.

    Did you go see the midnight showing of the movie?

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  19. I love it! Harry Potter for the win!

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  20. I love it, I feel like I am 9 3/4 pregnant:) so maybe that will stop people from asking lol

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  21. When I first clicked on your post the first photo showed up before anything else...I was like, why is Rachel's sister wearing a King's Cross platform t-shirt...;) Mystery explained...;)

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  22. Hahaha!! That's super nerdy....but awesome! I went to the midnight showing and I swear I saw Hagrid. No joke! The dude looked JUST like him. He was even carrying an umbrella and a "baby" Harry! Your sister is a classy nerd at least.

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  23. The shirt is adorable and I love that it isn't the typical HP wear you see!

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  24. Love this post... what fun!! Your sister is great and so is the shirt. Well done.

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  25. That is awesome. I am officially stealing the idea and making one myself, someday. I also read the whole series every summer (not everybody does?)

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  26. nice shirt :-) maybe i make one of myself, too.

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  27. I'm super late to this party, but I just found this entry while looking for ideas for my twin daughters' 9 and 3/4 party (I'm having a little party next month when they turn 9 & 3/4) & I had to comment. My kids are all HUGE HP fans. I think your sister's adorable. Your sister would probably be my middle daughter's hero. My middle daughter is the biggest HP fan I've ever met (and I'm a pretty big fan myself, so that's saying something).

    FWIW, my 2-year-old grabs anything remotely flat (knitting needles, pens, paint brushes, etc) and casts spells with them. It's hysterical.

    Thanks so much for this idea. I'm definitely going to make shirts like these for my girls.

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  28. I know this post is years old, but I've just found you and I love this idea and I love your sister. We are all Harry Potter nuts is our house and I have done a fair number of HP projects myself. Thanks

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