a passable maleficent costume (in about 5 minutes)

So, Jemima FINALLY had her birthday party yesterday. Only 3 months late. I spent 2 days tidying the garden, a day organising the food, and about 3 hours before the party, when I was in panic mode, I turned my attention to a costume for the ‘magical’ party theme. Jemima had her heart set on being ‘Maleficent’ so I googled her. And then started worrying about the horns. How to make them look good but keep construction to a minimum …. hmmm.

I contemplated sewing them, but doubted that I could make them the right shape with the limited amount of time I had (realistically about 15 minutes with all the other stuff I needed to do), and how to attach them to her head? I was sure making a black skull cap and then attaching horns to it was improbable/impossible given my state of mind. I knew I did have some stretchy black fabric somewhere but I was not sure where, I think packed away in a very unhandy location.

I was about to veto Maleficent. Then I had a brainwave.

Hello plastic headband, aluminium foil and my ever-so-handy can of black spray paint ….

I fashioned some curly maleficent horns from aluminium foil. That took about a minute. Then I wound the foil horns onto a headband and I used more silver foil to cover the headband completely (it is a perfectly good bright pink Barbie headband that belongs to Scarlett and I didn’t want to ruin forever with black spray paint …). Another minute.

And then I just spray painted the whole creation. A minute? The spray paint didn’t stick to the foil fabulously well, but it was good enough for us. I let it dry (sort of) and did a quick second coat. And then left this marvelous creation out in the sun for an hour to completely dry.

So, Jemima put on a black t-shirt, got the black cape from the dress-up box and found a little purple skirt. It was so hot yesterday. We had a magnificent purple velvet dress she could have worn, but she would have died from overheating. DONE! I took these photos at the end of the party. The horns held up pretty well!