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Make Your Own Disney Descendants Mal Costume

You can make your own authentic looking Mal Descendants costume by following this DIY Disney Descendant’s Mal jacket tutorial for Halloween!

Do you have a Disney Descendants fan? Well, this tutorial is for you! You can absolutely DIY a fantastic Disney Descendants Mal jacket just in time for Halloween!

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Make Your Own Epic Disney Descendants Mal Costume

Find out how to make Mal’s jacket from Disney Descendants! Don’t settle for a store bought costume. You can make your own authentic looking Mal Descendants costume by following these step-by-step instructions.

I’m pretty particular about making our costumes for Halloween rather than purchasing store bought ones. Although, I totally buy store bought costumes for the dress-up bin on clearance!

A picture of a family halloween costume from Disney Descendants.

You can totally make a Mal Descendants costume by following the step-by-step instructions below! 

My girls love Disney Descendants. They especially love Mal. They also wanted to be Mal for Halloween, both of them. We decided that they could be two different versions of Mal: Mal from “Isle of the Lost” and Mal from the coronation.

Charlotte (5yrs) was set on being “Isle of the Lost” Mal. This outfit was probably the hardest one that I made this year because it took some trial and error to get the paint right.

How to Make Descendants Mal’s Jacket

I started with a plain Girls’ Moto styled jacket from Target because purple is a pretty hard color to come by! The jacket I used is very similar to this Quilted Shoulder Moto Jacket for Girls. Here’s what the jacket looked like before I got my hands (with paint!) on it.

A picture of a black leather jacket from Target.
Photo Credit: Target.com

After I got the jacket, I read some online tutorials about how to make paint stay on pleather. The problem with this jacket was the holes. I learned that acrylic paint was the best to use and I decided to start there.

The Supplies I Used to Make Our Mal Descendants Costume

Painting Mal’s Jacket

First Attempt and My First Mistake

I started with painting the neon purple paint first. BIG MISTAKE. My first attempt at painting the jacket did not work. The jacket just soaked up all of the acrylic paint and I was left with a hazy black jacket.

I decided that I needed something that would create a larger volume of purple paint because I didn’t want to buy 10 packs of neon paint just for the purple one inside. I used sandpaper to buff the jacket and tried again.

Second Time is the Charm??

After using sandpaper to buff that shiny impenetrable pleather, I decided to use a flat purple acrylic paint to build a foundation. It worked!

I did two more layers of flat purple paint letting the jacket dry between each layer. This is the hardest part, so hang in there!

After the purple foundation layers were complete, I used the neon purple paint to give the jacket the “Mal” purple color it needed. It was fabulous!

How to Make Mal's Jacket! Don't settle for a store bought costume. You can make your own Mal Descendants costume by following these step-by-step instructions. Make Your Own Disney Descendants Mal from "Isle of the Lost" Jacket. Do you have a Descendants fan? Well, this tutorial is for you! You can absolutely DIY a fantastic Mal jacket just in time for Halloween #disneydescendants #malfromdescendants #isleofthelost #DIYcostumes #halloweencostumes #DIYdisney #Malcostume #disneyhalloweencostume #disneymalcostume #disneyhalloweencostumes #howtomakeMalsjacket #diydescendantsmal OurFamilyCode.com

I let the purple paint dry completely and then I moved on to painting the pink and green neon portions of the arms. I used a picture of Mal from Disney’s Descendants “Isle of the Lost” for inspiration and painted the portions of the jacket by sight.

Descendants Mal image with jacket
Mal from Descendants | Source: Disney

Drawing Dragons for Mal’s Costume

Let me begin by saying that I am not an artist. I am super creative, but I don’t really draw. If I can do this, you can totally do this too.

I started with a pencil and practiced on paper before touching the beautiful jacket. After several attempts, I used a pencil to draw the dragons onto the back of the jacket.

Add the Puffy Paint

Then, I traced the pencil with green and purple puffy paint. I let the puffy paint dry completely before moving on to the next step.

In hindsight, I would have traced the pencil with the black puffy paint and then filled in with the other two colors. I did this when I made the Descendants Tote Bags for the girls.

How to Make Mal's Jacket! Don't settle for a store bought costume. You can make your own Mal Descendants costume by following these step-by-step instructions. Make Your Own Disney Descendants Mal from "Isle of the Lost" Jacket. Do you have a Descendants fan? Well, this tutorial is for you! You can absolutely DIY a fantastic Mal jacket just in time for Halloween #disneydescendants #malfromdescendants #isleofthelost #DIYcostumes #halloweencostumes #DIYdisney #Malcostume #disneyhalloweencostume #disneymalcostume #disneyhalloweencostumes #howtomakeMalsjacket #diydescendantsmal OurFamilyCode.com

After the paint dried, I continued to trace the purple and green with the black puffy paint. I let the black dry and then I filled in the purple and the green dragons.

Add Some Glitter

I added a sprinkle of purple and green glitter to each dragon because why not?! This is the final result of the dragons for the back of Mal’s “Isle of the Lost” jacket.

How to Make Mal's Jacket! Don't settle for a store bought costume. You can make your own Mal Descendants costume by following these step-by-step instructions. Make Your Own Disney Descendants Mal from "Isle of the Lost" Jacket. Do you have a Descendants fan? Well, this tutorial is for you! You can absolutely DIY a fantastic Mal jacket just in time for Halloween #disneydescendants #malfromdescendants #isleofthelost #DIYcostumes #halloweencostumes #DIYdisney #Malcostume #disneyhalloweencostume #disneymalcostume #disneyhalloweencostumes #howtomakeMalsjacket #diydescendantsmal OurFamilyCode.com

Adding Metal Studs to Mal’s “Isle of the Lost” Jacket

After the dragons were dry, I moved on to the metal studs. I followed my picture of Disney Descendants Mal and poked the studs through the jacket. This was fairly easy.

I did it by sight and stopped when I felt like it was the right amount. I added them to the side adjacent to the green patch on the waist and to the right zipper flap.

How to Make Mal's Jacket! Don't settle for a store bought costume. You can make your own Mal Descendants costume by following these step-by-step instructions. Make Your Own Disney Descendants Mal from "Isle of the Lost" Jacket. Do you have a Descendants fan? Well, this tutorial is for you! You can absolutely DIY a fantastic Mal jacket just in time for Halloween #disneydescendants #malfromdescendants #isleofthelost #DIYcostumes #halloweencostumes #DIYdisney #Malcostume #disneyhalloweencostume #disneymalcostume #disneyhalloweencostumes #howtomakeMalsjacket #diydescendantsmal OurFamilyCode.com

The jacket was AMAZING! Charlotte was over-the-moon excited about her Mal Descendants Halloween costume! 

A picture of a Disney Descendant Mal jacket.

Complete Mal’s “Isle of the Lost” Look

To complete the Mal Descendants costume, we added some magenta leggings that I added holes to and put some lace behind, a purple shirt, and Mal’s necklace that we ordered online from Amazon.

I used hair chalk to turn her hair purple and she got to wear some magenta lip gloss for some extra Mal shine!

How to Make Mal's Jacket! Don't settle for a store bought costume. You can make your own Mal Descendants costume by following these step-by-step instructions. Make Your Own Disney Descendants Mal from "Isle of the Lost" Jacket. Do you have a Descendants fan? Well, this tutorial is for you! You can absolutely DIY a fantastic Mal jacket just in time for Halloween #disneydescendants #malfromdescendants #isleofthelost #DIYcostumes #halloweencostumes #DIYdisney #Malcostume #disneyhalloweencostume #disneymalcostume #disneyhalloweencostumes #howtomakeMalsjacket #diydescendantsmal OurFamilyCode.com

A Halloween to Remember!

Yes. That is a dragon pumpkin in the picture too! It glowed green at night for our little Mal. Charlotte enjoys wearing the jacket and the clothes throughout the year. The necklace also goes with many of her outfits!

I love that she loves her jacket! It’s soft and flexible and she can wear it in the fall for the next few years because she’s got some room to grow into it!

If you loved this project, please share it with friends!! You never know who is looking for an awesome Mal Descendants costume for their kiddo!

Make Mal's jacket from Disney Descendants

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Meet Toni, the Maker Mom behind Our Family Code

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Hey there, I’m Toni! I’m a software engineer and Maker Mom that finds my joy in unleashing my children’s curiosity by exploring STEAM concepts with my fantastic five!

When I’m not chasing toddlers or raising tweens, you can find me tearing things up and putting them back together over here at Our Family Code.

I am the owner and content creator of multiple educational websites designed to increase access to STEAM & STEM education with a focus on teaching computer science and coding to kids of all ages!

You can also find out more about me by visiting ToniGardner.com!

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Nicole

Saturday 1st of October 2022

Did you really use acrylic paint instead of fabric paint? This looks amazing and I'm getting ready to make one for my daughter too!

Toni

Friday 28th of October 2022

Yes! The material of the jacket just wouldn't work with the fabric paint. I used the neon acrylic paints shown in the post to FINALLY color it!! It took a few layers too (darn pleather!) I made the jacket 5 years ago and it is still marvelous looking today and has been passed down through four of my girls!

teachworkoutlove

Monday 13th of August 2018

That is so cool!!!! Love that you made that. And she must have been so happy!

Toni

Sunday 19th of August 2018

Thanks!! She loves it! She's super excited to wear it to school now that she is going into Kindergarten this year.

Leah @ The Frugal South

Saturday 11th of August 2018

We love your Mal costume! We bought one for last Halloween but yours looks better!

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