But the main reason was because I think Maleficent's the coolest villain ever. She's terrifying, she owns the colour purple, her staff is cool, her pet raven is named after the Devil, and... she turns into a dragon!
But more importantly, she pretty much curses the King and Queen's firstborn and the entire kingdom simply because she was not invited to a party. That's pretty awesome.
The main thing about Maleficent is her horns, so I started working on that first.
I cut up strips of cardboard using my ruler as a guide for the width. For the length, the longest piece was 20cm and then each piece was 2cm shorter that the previous piece. The very last piece though was 3cm, instead of 2cm.
I taped them up to form circles so they would all fit into each other nicely.
Then I arranged them and experimented with curvature, traced an outline of it so it wouldn't lose it's shape, then taped bits of it together.
Then I gradually glued it together, removing most of the masking tape. I used PVA glue instead of super glue, because since super glue dries really quickly, it wouldn't have given me much time to smooth it out, as I still wanted the different tiers to be quite pronounced. Also, I realised later that while I glued it, it lost some of it's original curvature so it ended up being straighter than I wanted, but it was still okay.
Paper mached it and let it dry.
Bought a cheap black hairband from the dollar store, and cut off the bow on it.
I wore the headband and used a piece of chalk to mark where I wanted the horns to connect to the headband. I wanted the horns to angle a bit forward as well so I made the marks on an angle.
Started wiring it up. This process took ages because I had to bend the wire, tape it on, paper mache it, bend it more, slide the headband in, slide it out, adjust, etc. etc.
Bending the wire so that I can fit the headband in...
...Inserting the headband in then needing to bend the wires around it again:
When it was done I taped it up, realised the horns were tilting whenever I moved my head so added more wiring, taped that up, paper mached it, then tried it on to see how it was.
I then bought some black spray paint from the dollar store. I didn't want it to be glossy so I bought matte paint. I wrapped the bits I didn't want sprayed with cling wrap, then used masking tape to hang my horns off a tree (credit goes to my mum for figuring out how to hang it), then sprayed it.
I saw a picture online where the hair was tied over the headband so that the horns would look more natural, so I did the same.
Next, I got a stick from my backyard that had a forked branch (credit goes to my mum for finding such a perfect stick). I broke off the top bits so that it'd be a suitable height, washed and dried it, then I spray painted the top part purple, and the bottom part black, so that there would be a sort of gradient.
It's hard to see the gradient, especially since the party was outdoors and it was at night...
I had to also figure out how to do a cape, since Maleficent's big thing is her huge cape. I used a black scarf that I had, got a piece of black ribbon, and folded about a quarter of the black scarf over it, so that I could tie the ribbon in front of my neck and have it hang over my shoulders.
I was going to wear a different skirt but because the night was so cold I opted for a longer one (and I wore my knee-length leggings underneath since the skirt was so thin and definitely not warm at all).
Lastly, for the finishing touches to my outfit, I bought a pair of elbow-length black gloves. Since I didn't have a long shirt or cape I thought I needed to cover my arms a bit more to be a bit more "menacing" (and it helped with the cold).
The last thing was the make up and the nails (for when I would have to take off my gloves to eat). I'm not a big make up person so I had to work with what I had. All I had was my mum's dark red lipstick (which, I later realised, was not as dark as I hoped), my black eyeliner, random foundation/BB cream, and... that's pretty much it.
I wanted to do purple and green eyes, and I bought some cheap purple eyeliner that I doubt I will ever wear again, but I couldn't find a good green shade so I decided to just do purple and black. The purple ended up not being as bright as it looked, so I had to keep drawing and drawing it on since it was so pale. In the end I'm not too sure it made a difference since the party was outdoors at night with not too much lighting.
I painted my nails as well. I didn't realise I was running out of nail polish but I worked with what little purple I had. I painted the tips of my nails purple, then tried to do a gradient with the black, to match my stick. It wasn't so much a gradient... it was more of a... I dunno, see for yourself:
I left it though, because I thought the effect still looked alright (it almost looks like purple fire, or reptilian/dragon-like skin/scales texture).
I tried to contour my face a bit since some of my foundations were different shades but since this was no bronzer I didn't stand a chance.
My only regret is that I couldn't add in more purple. I tried to think of ways to make a purple high collar but I just couldn't seem to think of a way to connect it to my scarf. Now that the party is over I realised I could have used wiring sandwiched between two sheets of purple foam, which could then be connecting to the scarf via a double ring of wire... but oh well.
Another improvement would be to maybe sand down the stick, at least in the section that I would hold, since the pieces of wood were quite rough and would get caught in my gloves. But it didn't matter too much.
In the end, I'm pretty pleased with my cheap DIY costume. I think overall I spent around $15 (spray paint, gloves, eyeliner, headband), so it was definitely worth it.
