The making of Leafeon ✨🌱✨

Helloooooo you darling inner sanctum and god tier fams!

So here it is! Some of the behind the scenes of the making of my humanised Leafeon cosplay <3 it was a really enjoyable project tbh, purely because it was all pretty simple stuff and I could let my brain relax a little after the effort that was the making of Luxray (of which YouTube video is coming sooooooon).

I didn’t take a huuuge amount of WIP pictures for the leafeon which is a bit of a shame, HOWEVER, I’ll talk through the rough process for each element :D.

Ears:

These are great, I really love making ears and you can probably see that reflected in their quality that they can the most love. A light Eva foam core with upholstery foam edges formed the base, and was layered over with mochi minky fleece, part machine sewn and part hand sewn. They were they dry brushed using acrylic paint, and wow the difference that simple paint can make is astounding - it really elevates a decent project to a great one!

Collar:

Artificial brown leather was sewn to form a simple strap, and a buckle attachment held it together. I wanted it to look a little rougher so several holes were punched into the collar (sadly using a scissor blade as my ex made off with my leather punch after I moved out last year). The leaf itself was entirely hand sculpted used milliput epoxy 2-part putty. It’s activated by mixing the two parts together and eventually hardens to a rock-hard consistency so is brilliant for sculpting super detailed pieces for jewellery etc. After this was a simple matter of an acrylic paint job and sealed with glossy Mod Podge (which for the longest time I though was MODGE podge lmao).

Arm Belts:

Super simple - leather doubled over in a long fold, double sewn to form a fairly basic belt. And a buckle added to the end. Bosh! I was wondering if I really needed them but honestly that splash of brown is a welcome relief on the eyes when you look at the thing as a whole.

Top:

This top was largely a pre-made, however the pledge front was secured to stop too much gappage(!) and the bottom turned up more to make it into more of an actual crop top. Two thumb holes were also added to stop the sleeves from riding up my arm under the gloves.

Gloves:

Simple patterning of just around my hand and arm up to elbow level, I elected for full fingerless rather than individual fingerless to save time. Mochi minky fabric here again to be cohesive for the look, and machine sewn.

Skirt:

So funny story about this one hahaha. I was meant to also have this as a pre-bought, but by the time it arrived about 4 days before I was due to leave for the con, it was really not up to standard. The cream was the wrong shade, it was a weird texture, and honestly didn’t even fit well.

So I did the sensible thing and threw a tiny tantrum to my friend over WhatsApp, and then started the entire skirt from scratch using the old skirt cut up as a template (simple half moon and waistband thank god lol). But to my shock and horror, I didn’t have enough cream mochi fabric left.

Again, more proverbial feet stamping was had, before I put my big girl pants on and figured out what to do. I decided to make the waistband green for a belt-like appearance, and also add the green leaves to the end of the skirt to minimise the amount of cream needed. For the remaining cream pieces I chopped up the pattern and CRAMMED it onto the remaining fabric hahaha, and thank god there was *just* enough. The leaves on the bottom of the skirt took a LONG time, I even took the thing to therapy and sewed it while I was having my brain prodded by the professional (he’s an art therapist and encourages me to do this kinda stuff!). Once sewn I originally was going to sew on the leaf veins individually, but I rapidly said “HELL no” after doing one leaf, and instead was a corner-cutting bitch and sharpied them on. Lol. Worked out fine tho!

Tail:

Now this was FUN! Easily the fav part of the outfit apart from the ears. The core was made from black art worbla, and supported on the underside by a remodelled wire coat hanger. However, to stop it flopping down against my legs it needed a solid support. So my solution was a kidney belt, a worbla triple-layered plate, and some knuts and bolts. Eventually I fashioned a sort of corner bracket type thingy, and it held the tail wonderfully! It also allowed a good amount of safe swing which was awesome. The belt itself sit on my hip level under the skirt waistband so was completely invisible ^^ I Velcro’d the skirt edges to the tail so no gapping was had around the tail hole.

Tights:

Prebought lads, nothing special here ;)

Shoes:

Also prebought, but did remove some of the brown bands as my calves were TOO thicc to sit in this hahaha.

Leg warmers:

Very similar process to the gloves but… feet hahah. I added a stirrup bottom to both to stop the riding up my legs, as well as elastic on the top and that worked pretty well.

Leaves:

Various leaves were used on the gloves, top, and leg warmers. These are all very simple - EVA thin foam core, mochi minky overlay, and a single machine stitch down the middle for a better 3D effect to the vein. I sharpied the rest on tho because help.

And there you have it! The making of Leafeon :D I hope this was enjoyable - would you like to hear more about how I made my cosplays :o? Let me know!!!

Izzy xxxxxx