When I gave my kids the unofficial “What do you want to be for Halloween” survey back in September, my 9 year old said, “Elvis.”
Naturally.
So if that’s what he wanted that’s what we were going to figure out.
I thought, great, that should be easy – jeans, white t-shirt, and leather jacket.
“No mom, I want the other Elvis.”
We started looking at pictures and he kept choosing the jumpsuit Elvis.
“You want a jumpsuit for your costume?
“Yes.”
“That might be hard to find.”
“You can make it.”
For the record, no I can’t. My sewing skills are terrible but I can make my way through pillow construction. Jumpsuits? No.
So I looked online but there were no 9 year old Elvis costumes. I could find baby Elvis, adult Elvis, and even dog Elvis but no kid Elvis.
So then I went on the hunt for jumpsuits at consignment stores and at my 6th store BINGO – A WHITE JUMPSUIT!
The jumpsuit was all white with red material flared at the bottom and came with a red scarf. You have no idea how excited I was – I gave them my $6 and practically ran out the store to go show my son.
A month passed.
And what to little boys do in a month’s time? They grow. The jumpsuit that I thought was perfect for Elvis was looking a little tight and more ABBA like. Stink. What was I going to do?
And then I remembered that my neighbor sews. My beautiful, wonderful, sewing neighbor.
A day before Andrew’s Halloween piano recital (where the kids dress up in costume) I knocked on my neighbor’s door and said, “Please please help me.”
My neighbor came over, snipped the whole jumpsuit in half, sewed the red scarf around the middle and gave our little Elvis enough dancing room.
My neighbor accomplished all of that in under 5 minutes. I sat there amazed but oh so thankful.
My son was adamant that the costume needed a larger collar so I took hard felt and covered it in white fabric. I then made a gold edge for the collar using some leftover Wonder Woman fabric. The belt buckle was made the same way. I then used puffy paints (about $6) and created an eagle on both sides of the collar and a design on the belt.
We found a pair of gold sunglasses ($7 at the party store) and painted on some mighty fine side burns if you ask me.
To complete the look, Elvis put on his “blue suede” Converse and was ready to roll.
I now present to you…THE KING!
I was literally sewing the belt buckle on to the costume in between stoplights driving to his piano recital. All in the day of a music legends manager I guess.
A white jumpsuit – $6
Gold sunglasses – $7
Neighbor who sews – Priceless!
Can’t wait to see what he picks for his costume this year.
