DIY Pokemon GO Trainer Cosplay Tutorial

Pokemon GO Trainer Cosplay Tutorial

There’s almost no game series that’s managed to stay as popular for as long as the Pokemon series, and no mobile game exploded the way Pokemon GO did. The augmented reality game gave every ’90s fan the ability to achieve one of their dreams: catching pokemon in real life.

Pokemon GO is a hot commodity, and with Halloween right around the corner, Costume SuperCenter teamed up with cosplayer Uncanny Megan to bring you an easy to follow tutorial on how to dress like a Pokemon GO trainer!

Pokemon GO Trainer

This tutorial will help walk you through the steps of making a simple Pokemon GO Trainer costume. It will highlight all the construction steps and include tips and tricks about anything else you might need!

Lucky for us, McCall’s just released a perfect pattern for this costume; MP279 by Yaya Han, available for sale at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store. For this tutorial, we’ll be following this pattern and making some changes along the way.

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This costume is to be made from stretch material. the jacket looks best made from knit material and the romper from spandex. The pattern packaging will let you know just how much you need to buy, but never be afraid to get a little extra, just as a buffer in case of mistakes.

Pokemon GO has tons of clothing combinations, so your fabric colors all depend on you and your Pokemon trainer!

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The first step is determining what pattern pieces you need and cutting them out! With this outfit, you’ll end up cutting out almost all of the pieces.

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first, the jacket, since minimal alterations are going to be necessary. Once you’ve laid your fabric out nicely (watch for wrinkles!) it’s time to start pinning and cutting your pattern pieces. With this pattern in particular, any rectangle pieces came out short, so go ahead and cut them out a little longer than needed to prevent having to cut them out again like I had to.

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The first change we’ll be making to this pattern is to the sleeves. The detail on the sleeve is meant to be sewn on top, but it looks better when sewn into the actual sleeve itself. All we’re going to do here is cut the placement line out of the sleeve and then insert the detailing inside.

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After pinning your sleeve detail into the actual sleeve, it’s time to start sewing! We used a serger for this, but if you don’t have one, a simple zigzag stitch on a sewing machine will work just as well! If, however, you are using a serger, we highly recommend using a stretch thread! It really makes such a difference while sewing stretch materials.

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The next step is attaching the bottom cuff to the sleeve. Since we added a little extra to the width by changing up how the sleeve was sewn, we added some pleats to even out the sizing.

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Now that the sleeves are finished, we can get to work on the rest of the jacket! The next step is pinning and sewing the shoulders together.

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Once the shoulders have been sewn, we can attach the sleeves. While you can attach the sleeve at any point, it’s much easier to attach it at this point during the construction.

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After sewing the sleeve to the shoulder, we can sew up the sides! If you’re using a serger, don’t forget to do a safely stitch at the bottom of the sleeve to keep it from coming apart.

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Our next step is adding the detail to the top and bottom of the jacket! We put fleece inside to make it a little sturdier, but still flexible. Once you’ve cut your lining and placed it inside, go ahead and pin and sew the collar and bottom detail to the jacket!

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Since it doesn’t actually matter if the jacket is actually functional or not, we made it to where it shows the top of the romper without any issues. You don’t have to do the same with your jacket if you don’t want to, but here’s how I’ll be doing mine!

First I’m going to put the jacket on, figure out where I want it to sit open, and mark it with pins. Once this is done, I’ll cut out the shape I want and then flip the jacket in half to cut the other side to match.
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And now for the last part of the jacket, the zipper! You’ll need to use an open end jacket zipper; mine was 12 inches. If you don’t know how to attach a zipper, it’s not as hard as it seems! You just place each side face down, pin, and sew! Then, we you flip the zipper over, you have a nice clean line with no showing stitches. With things like this, make sure any lines, such as the bottom and top details, match up before sewing.

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Next up is the romper! I’m going to be altering this part of the pattern a little bit because I don’t quite care for how the middle looks as a straight line. If you like how it looks, or if you’re romper is all one color, then feel free to skip this part!

In order to change up the pattern, I’m going to tape the bottom of the front and side front pieces together and cut out the new shape I want from there.

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Now that the front of the romper pattern has been changed up, it’s time to start pinning down and cutting out all the pattern pieces!

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Once your pieces are all cut out, pin and sew together two sets of the side front, side back, and back as well as the two front pieces. Do not attach the two back pieces or the front to the rest just yet!

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Some of the rompers have a design on the bust area, if yours has this, this part is for you! Using a piece of paper, figure out the shape and how big you want your pattern piece to be. Once that is done, place it on your fabric and cut it out a little longer than need be to make sure it covers your front pieces entirely.

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Then, carefully pin it down to the front pieces of your costume. Make sure it’s centered and even before sewing!

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Once you’re all pinned, very carefully top stitch the design into place. We used white thread to help the design pop a little more.

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Now that this is done, we can attach the front to the sides and put the zipper in! This zipper sews in the same way as the one in the jacket, but since this one has smaller teeth it requires a special sewing machine foot called a zipper foot. If you’re sewing machine didn’t come with one of these, they’re very easy to find in stores or online! This foot makes it so you can easily sew right along side the teeth of the zipper. If you’re using an invisible zipper, they make an invisible zipper foot as well!

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After the zipper is sewn in, it’s time to close up the butt. Line to two back flaps up, pin them together, and then sew. You’ll notice the end of the zipper is in the way, that okay, just sew as closely as you can to it.

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The next step is adding the cuffs onto the legs. Make sure to cut any rectangle shaped pieces extra long to make sure you don’t need to cut them again. Fold over the pieces, right side out, and pin and sew them to the bottom of the legs. After this, all you need to do is sew the crotch shut!

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Now for the last little bit of sewing! Hemming the neckline and the sleeve holes! The pattern gives you a piece for making this look a little nicer, but we just folded over the edges and sewed them down. A zigzag stitch will not only look nice, but stretch with you as well.

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Now that we’re finished with all the sewing, it’s time for the accessories! We can’t go into a lot of detail about what to buy and where since everyone’s Pokemon trainer is different, but you can find a variety of tights, belts, gloves, and hats anywhere online, such as Amazon or eBay, or even at your local Walmart.

And that’s it! Everything you need to know to make your own simple Pokemon GO Trainer costume!
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If you’re looking to turn your cosplay into a group effort and want to add a few pokemon to your squad, check out the Pokemon costumes from Costume SuperCenter! And be sure to like Uncanny Megan on Facebook, follow her on Instagram, subscribe to her channel on YouTube and follow her on Twitter!

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