The main part of this costume was a vintage lace layered corset with the tails sewn on the back. She helped stuff and paint the tails and ears as well as tell me exactly what she wanted for the rest, which was all hand made, as well, except for the tank top she wore under the cape. We had to do laces in the back as well as the front to let the extra center tail be centered! ( worn on an elastic waistband) The front being adjustable as well makes it possible for someone other than this tiny 9 year old to wear it in the future as well!! 😉 She was worn out at the end of the day. I would say it added between 5-10 lbs!
I really respect both pokemon girls’ decisions to re-create these characters in an age appropriate way, because they have seen a lot of the other interpretations online and most of them were not necessarily kid friendly! They guided me in making their own visions of how a human version of these great characters would look.
Here is one more shot that shows the tails and pretty corset on the adult mannequin:
We are pretty new to the Pokemon world, so I am excited to keep this one around for a long time while we learn more.
I put this into tutorials because I do have patterns for the tails and ears if anyone wants them. (just send me a message) I just used the free images I saw online and drew my version. I bought simple fabric store fur and we painted it using a base color of a rusty red/orange and adding pale yellow till we blended in with the cream fur.
This costume was designed and directed by a four year old pokemon fan. She is also a big fan of purple and cats.
If you are not familiar with Pokemon, I will put a little description in the “misc” category. Basically, the costumes and the word gijinka mean translating the actual animal character into a human with a costume featuring their colors and power or specialty. In Espeon’s case, she is a psychic purple cat, picked immediately by the little one, even though she is not yet playing the game. A purple spinny dress, ears, and the tail were the most desired factors, but the Asian style sleeves were an agreed upon detail. We did some red accents instead of the third eye on her forehead and instead painted the psychic eye detail on the hanging sleeves.
She was in character and enjoyed this first cosplay to it’s fullest!
(oh, and enjoyed winning the costume contest for their category with her fellow pokemon as well!)
This was made for my favorite Kitty customer, Kitten and Dragon, based on the Ultimates version of her costume. I actually did two versions of this dress, but this one won out! Here she is on Free Comic Day 2014.
MiaLa costuming blog 