Completed: August 2016
Hours Spent: About 15
Debuted: A-Fest 2016
Why This Costume: Not gonna lie… This was mostly to join the Pokemon Go hype train, haha. But honestly, it was a fortuitous build. I really enjoy playing the game, I had about 85% of the necessary materials on hand, and I also wanted an easy to wear costume. So it all came together pretty well!
How I made it: This was a remarkably fast and pretty simple build! I initially interpreted my trainer’s outfit as a top, leggings, and shorts rather than as a romper and leggings, so my approach reflects that interpretation.
The top/leggings combo was made using Yaya Han’s ultimate bodysuit pattern. I blended out the underbust seams and used a grey spandex for the center piece. I drafted out the chest design with paper, then cut it out of purple spandex and topstitched the design down. Wondertape was a great help for this!
Since the trainer wears a bolero, I ditched the sleeves and left the sleeve holes undone. Spandex doesn’t fray, and no one sees them anyway! The neckline is finished with 3/8″ elastic. The leg portion of Yaya’s pattern comes in 2 pieces, so I simply eliminated some seam allowance from the outside seam and used that to add in the purple stripe.
To make the bolero, I turned to my Avacado hoodie pattern. The pattern has a clear top and bottom half, so I dropped the bottom half to make this and drafted quick bands to finish off the neck, bottom edge, and sleeves. I topstitched the princess seams and the yellow stripes on the arms for a more RTW finish.
The belt was made from some awful foam backed vinyl I’ve been hoarding for years. I used that as a base, then covered it with scrap grey and white spandex, again topstitching around the edges for a more professional looking finish. I stitched some webbing I had on hand for the skinnier portion of the belt and held it together with a large parachute buckle. My belt buckle (courtesy of Callula Cosplay!) attaches to the parachute buckle with industrial strength Velcro.
Accessories! My hat was a basic black one I got off of Amazon. I drafted a quick Pokeball design and cut it out of felt. I used fusible web to attach the felt and then reinforced it with a hand stitch. The choker is quilt bias binding that has a snap stitched on the ends. I purchased the shorts from Wal-Mart.
Most of my other accessories were things I already had on hand. Since my trainer more or less looks like me, I used a clip in bang from Arda (styled by Cosmic Coterie‘s Moon) and picked up a curly ponytail clip-in that I gently relaxed with some brushing and my hair dryer. My gloves were leftover from She-Hulk, and my shoes were leftover from Pokemon Trainer Serena. The Eevee was an indulgence purchase from AMA-con a few weeks ago. He’s just so cute I couldn’t pass him up! My Pokeball was a gift from Callula Cosplay 🙂
Thoughts on this costume: Man, this thing was stupidly cheap. I think I spent maybe $30 total? I totally don’t count the Eevee in that cost since he lives in my plush collection. Almost everything was something I had on hand, which is how I justified adding this to my roster, haha. While it’s not the most flattering costume I have, it’s stupidly comfortable and a really fun Sunday costume! I can’t wait to go Pokemon hunting and get more photos of this costume in action.
Who’s your favorite Pokemon?
The Geeky Seamstress 
I love that cosplayers are making Trainer costumes! It’s the best!
Love this! You look great; that’s a spot on trainer outfit! I’m hoping to fudge together a trainer costume for Halloween since my daughter wants to be Pikachu and my partner is going as Ash.
I love this!!! Mostly because this is exactly what my avatar’s outfit looks like currently. It’s so cool to see it brought to the real world! You did a fantastic job 😀