Here and There: DIY Maleficent Costume for a Birthday Theme Party!

Monday, October 24, 2016

DIY Maleficent Costume for a Birthday Theme Party!

After hunting for a head piece for a dress that was perfect for a Maleficent costume and finding a head piece that cost seventy dollars, I decided to sew the head piece. I had found DIY tutorials for making the horns out of cardboard, which was very involved and too detailed! Too many steps for me! After seeing the head piece made out of thick foam fabric, I decided "How difficult can this be" to sew!

I had sewn all my children's Halloween customes when fabric was not expensive and when it was cheaper to sew than buying pre made costumes. And although I did use a pattern, most times the patterns had to be adjusted to what the children wanted or visualized the costume to be!

Buying fabric is an experience now as there is only one fabric box store in the city. While shopping, one realizes that sale prices apply only to Members and since I do not sew enough anymore, thirty dollars for a year's membership is ridiculous! Checking out the discount area, the cost has gone up from $1.50 to later $2.50 to now a range from four dollars to eight dollars. There was a dollar off all discount fabric but only for members! Although, I only needing about a half a metre, I was told that since it was discount fabric, I had to buy a whole metre! Unhappily I said I would take a metre, thinking of all the full boxes of unused fabric I had in the house. The fabric had been cut by scissors resulting in a irregular edge. I asked the server to rip the fabric which resulted in me walking off with about a metre and half! Oh great, I thought .."More Fabric", even though in total it cost me four dollars!

Sketching out the shape of a horn and cutting out 4 pieces of fabric for the horns, which were stuffed with polyfill stuffing.

A pattern for a rabbit head bonnet was used. Since it was children's size, I increased it a bit for me.

The back of the bonnet was gathered at the seam line using an elastic from the top of the seam to the bottom.. I had wished I had cut the length of the bonnet longer at the bottom to cover more of my hair. I had also gathered in the middle of each side but this made the bonnet to small, so left on a little bit of the elastic. I could have lined the bonnet but felt it would be too hot to wear at a house party. The edges of the bonnet were hemmed.

The next step was placement of the horns, which were sewn on to the bonnet.

Since the horns were only filled with Polypill stuffing did not sit properly on the head. The solution was a leather strip that went around the bonnet and also was used to glue the horns in place so they sat firmly.

Using the piece of fabric that had be cut irregularly for the head piece, I still had close to a metre left!

Although I had a perfect dress for the costume, I decided to wear a long black dress and sew a cape for the costume. A trip to the Dollarama store in our neighbor found the prefect solution to a Maleficent cape. The cape was trim with Pinking shears at the bottom, the top was gathered and trimed with a bais tape cut from the fabric to trim the edge and make a tie.

My solution to making a stand up collar and supporting it on the cape was to buy a wired bat with sparkles and place the bat upside down so the wings were the ruffled top.. I did need feather but Dollarama no longer sold the Feather Boa!

As one know the best critics of Disney characters are the children that have watched the movie! We dropped in to show the customes to our five year old grandchild. Her first reaction was shock which quickly followed to recognition after silence and a steady study, " You're Maleficent". Yes, I had passed the test!

My husband went as Sebastian, the Bad Butler!

On to the Theme Birthday Party!

One never quite know what to except when you enter our friend's home for their Annual Birthday theme parties. Each room had been draped with fabric and lit with different lighting.

This year the theme was Good Versus Evil!