the cutest little Tightwad Gazette king

I couldn't find the costume I made several years ago in honor of our then-present and future curly-haired toddlers. (You may see it by googling "site:coolest-homemade-costume.com popcorn chavi" only without the quotations.) I was quite disappointed, especially since it was already Purim eve when this became apparent and I did not have time to start making a costume.

Oh well. I went about my business, packing mishloach manos plates (post to come soon), while thinking about my princeling and his perfectly popcorn-like curls. I remembered how perfect he looked at my brother's wedding, wearing a black velvet outfit, and every curl carefully in place. I thought of the King Achashverosh costume in my mother's stash, which she'd made to fit a long-ago fourth grader.

Then I thought of the purple flash I'd hardly registered while rummaging through my craft supplies bin earlier in the day. It was the skin of a purple umbrella. I'd saved it because the Tightwad Gazette once mentioned you could make a child's poncho from a dead and boneless umbrella.

At 2 am, my plates all wrapped and stacked, I dug out the crumpled purple umbrella skin, plus a sheet of almost-pristine gold cardboard I'd saved from another year's unfinished Succos school project. Then I dug out the iron. (That part was hard LOL.) I pressed the purple flat; it was a perfect circle, regally shimmering. I dug out my son's black velvet outfit (received from a friend whose child had outgrown it, wouldn't you know) and safety-pinned the cape to the shoulders of his shirt.

Then I sketched a zigzag line across the cardboard and cut out two crown halves, and taped them together. I tried the crown on his sleeping head.

It was 2:20 and we had a costume. I love it!!