This is the Halloween costume that started it all folks. Last October God used a baby Elvis costume to renew something inside of me that I did not think would ever be brought back to life. I was deep in the trenches of newborn life and figuring out this new role of “mom” while also being a wife, figuring out how to maintain relationships in this new season, and grieving my mom’s absence throughout it all. Somewhere along the way I felt like I was starting to lose myself. But really I lost a part of myself the day my mom died. I lost my desire to create and never really felt fully myself since. It was if that whole part of my brain just shut off completely with that one life changing phone call. Granted, I still had to be creative and make things because I was an Art Education major and art teacher for two years after college. But it always felt forced and detached, not motivated by much joy or enthusiasm. It was always missing something.
Fast forward eight years to last Halloween. My first Halloween as a mom, Lainey’s first Halloween. It was just a few days before October 31 and of course we hadn’t planned anything because #newbornlife. We had a joke with Joey’s family that Lainey’s hair looked like Elvis Presley because she had a TON of dark dark brown hair and it even swooped down in the front. We thought it was funny, so we went with it.
My mom always made our Halloween costumes growing up (wether we liked it or not). From a clown costume to Princess Jasmine, Maid Marian, and even a blue M&M costume for my sister one year. She always found a way to make it herself. While I might not have appreciated it at the time, it is something that I now treasure and deeply appreciate. I wish she were here to tell her thank you. To say thank you for spending your precious alone time after we had gone to bed sewing costumes for us to be worn one day for a few hours. Thank you mom.
It wasn’t until the moment we decided what Lainey was going to be for her first Halloween that I knew I wanted to make her costumes like my mom made ours. Or at least for the first few years of her life. I knew they wouldn’t be near as good as I do not know how to sew clothes from a pattern or even use a sewing machine for that matter, but I do know my way around a hot glue gun! So I grabbed my glue gun and sequins and got to work on the baby Elvis costume. I had so much fun making it and even more fun seeing Lainey in it. I loved that our kitchen table was covered in colorful sequins and scraps of red felt. I loved finding stray sequins for weeks following Halloween. I loved having color back in my life.
It was that costume that God used to reignite the spark that I thought was too far gone to bring back to life. I felt excited to make things again. To use my hands and create something and to fill it with color. And y’all I know this is no extraordinary piece of art or something, it’s a baby Elvis costume for goodness sake… but for me it meant everything. I had fun creating something and couldn’t remember the last time I felt connected to making something like that. The Holy Spirit later revealed to me that those feelings surfaced because I finally felt connected to my mom again after becoming a mom. There was something about knowing I was doing something for Lainey that my mom did for me and my sister that made me feel like I was doing something right, going in the right direction. Somehow making my daughter’s Halloween costume anchored me. It reminded me that even though my mom is not here to guide me through motherhood, I have a deep well of memories and old homemade Halloween costumes to remind me of the mother she was and the mother I want to be. It reminded me that my mom’s life and legacy can live on through me and now through Lainey too.
Not only did God and His Spirit breath life back into my creative bones with the Halloween costume and bring me a new connection to my mom, but it was that following week He gave me the idea for the Colorful Mother! That is what sparked this whole thing. I felt like creating again and realized how much I missed having color in my life. God knew I would need this outlet again and those colorful reminders of my mom in this new season of motherhood where I was feeling so lost. He reignited that spark at the perfect time and I finally felt like myself again.
I hope this encourages someone today. If you lost a piece of yourself with the loss of a loved one, it does not mean it will be gone forever. He can restore and redeem it at the exact moment you need it. God is at work even when we cannot see it or feel it. He breathes life into dust, He restores what is broken, He knows what we need long before we do. He shows up in the most unexpected moments, even in a homemade baby Elvis costume for Halloween.
For anyone who may want to make this costume too, (because let me tell you, it was a hit!) see below summary of how I made it. I wish I had better pictures for step by step instructions, but I made this a year ago with zero intentions of ever sharing how to make it.
The materials you will need are: a white long sleeve button up shirt or onesie, white leggings (I found these at a secondhand store), one piece of red felt, one piece of white felt, some string to secure the belt, multicolored sequins, and a hot glue gun or fabric glue!
How to make it:
Cut a 4 or 5 inch slit up the bottom of the leggings. With the red felt cut two long skinny triangles to fit on the inside of the shirt and two shorter and wider triangles to go at the bottom of the leggings where the slit is made. You are basically making bell bottoms with the felt to widen the bottom of the pants. I used fabric glue to attach the pieces of felt to the leggings and shirt. Set aside to dry. While that dries you can make the belt. Cut the white felt into a strip like a belt. The size will depend on the size of the child. Lainey’s is probably 3 inches wide and long enough to wrap around the front. It does’ have to wrap all around them, just as long as the front part looks like a belt. I used a hole punch and some string to tie the ends together in the back. Then bedazzle the belt and pants and top as you please with the sequins! I used fabric glue for the sequins and a ton fell off throughout the night so I would recommend hot glue for the sequins! Either way I would still keep an eye on them to make sure there are no sequins getting pulled off and into mouths. Last, we used some Vaseline to slick down her sideburns and some baby curl gel for her front curls!
Happy Halloween from our tiny Elvis to you!
