Cinema Knits

At the opening of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the Dursley family is pulling out all the stops to throw a very proper dinner party for the Masons. Mr. Dursley is hoping that they can charm Mr. Mason into a business deal involving drills. Petunia Dursley has prepared a fancy dessert and is dressed to impress.

As much as Aunt Petunia’s personality can be repellent, I find her dinner party look in this scene gorgeous. For the dinner party, Petunia is dressed in a peach chiffon wrap dress with flutter sleeves. I think this look really suits actress Fiona Shaw.

When I saw her dress I immediately thought of this knitting pattern from Önling:

This pattern is Wrap Me Up cardigan by Plummum. It’s been on my Pinterest board for ages and I definitely want to get around to knitting it at some point. It’s such a good match for Petunia’s dinner party dress. The light airy knit fabric even stands in nicely for the floaty chiffon of Petunia’s dress. I think it is such a pretty top.

I wanted to find a few more wrap options for you, in case the above option from Önling doesn’t suit. I found a few patterns from DROPS Design that I thought were good matches as well. DROPS has a huge variety of patterns and they are ALWAYS FREE, which is nice! Here are a few options from DROPS:

If you really want a challenge, you could try a pattern to knit an entire wrap dress rather than just a top. Here are a couple of options:

1. Wrap Dress by Laura Grutzeck and 2. It’s a Wrap (Dress)! by Amanda Pollon

If you want to complete Petunia’s pre-party look, you could pair your dress or top with a lace apron. I was surprised by how few patterns I was able to find searching for lace aprons. It’s either a fashion that has seriously gone out of vogue or perhaps one that was never very popular in the first place. If your grandmothers or other older relatives wore lace aprons in their day, I would love to hear from you. I did find one pattern that I liked. It’s sweetly called Marilla’s Apron (after Marilla of Green Gables) and was written by Joanna Johnson:

Another way that you might simply nod towards the lace apron in your knit is to combine the lace with the wrap top, rather than knitting two seperate items. Here are three very elegant and feminine looks that combine the wrap top with lace:

1. #45 Croisette Wrap-Around Cardigan by Lana Grossa 2. 36 Wrap Sweater with Eyelets by Rebecca Design Team 3. Hellebore by Martin Storey

Tell me in the comments which of these designs in your favorite! If you knit one of these for your next dinner party (even if it’s a Zoom one), I hope it turns out better than the Dursley’s party did!