📸: TheCosplayerAnnual

  • For: Espeon from pokemon
  • Estimated build duration: Few weeks of iteration

I call this (and his brother) my sons purposefully; the pokemon looks like a cat (with a giant head) and with my cat going through heart problems, I wanted a part of my cat baby with me in cosplay.

I drafted and made these plushies, with it modeled after my kitty baby boy. In universe, these would be teenage espeon. But to me, they’re always my babies!

Media/Materials used

  • minky fleece for the base, leftover purple satin from the skirt satin-stitched
  • Based pattern loosely off of a found jolteon plushie, with lots of evolutions for proportions
  • Stuffing
  • magnets on feet

Notable Construction Notes

I wanted to be closer to cartoony than realistic for these plushies; I wanted them to be like they came out of the show, but make it reasonably proportional to be cute and manageable in crowds.

In an attempt to be sustainable, I did try using scraps from the garment and incorporate it in these plushies; unfortunately, it left the plushies rather stiff, and one of my goals for these plushies is for it to be cuddly for the kids.

Results

Because the plushies had a cute aesthetic, they were super popular with kids wanting photos of me! I still need to play with the weight to be sure they are both soft, and strong enough to hold itself, but these two are running around my house now.

After multiple restuffings of each of these plushies, I learned how bad down is for plushies, and how polyfill shrinks over time. For this competition, I’ve freshly stuffed both, knowing the stuffing will shrink and become more soft over time.

After playing around with different magnets, I have finally achieved my goal of attachable pokemon, whether it’s on the head, shoulder, or even dangling on a skirt!

Image gallery