Ash Ketchum Homemade Halloween Costume - Brick Building Kids Alex Pokemon Costume 2016

Now Alex, wanted to be Ash Ketchum. Ash was actually pretty easy (once I figured out my best plan of attack). Now, I know that the Ash costume is also available on Amazon; however sometimes I have a hard time justifying cost when the materials that are used for most Halloween costumes are pretty flimsy. 

So, to start with Ash, I did the easiest part first. I went onto Ebay and ordered an Ash hat (say that 5 times fast). The hat was pretty basic and only cost about $5 or $6 with shipping. 

For Ash's jacket, I went to our local Children's second hand store (Once Upon A Child) and purchased 2 shirts. I purchased a long sleeved button up white shirt and a long sleeved button up blue shirt. The white shirt was a size smaller than the blue, which was perfect for my costume. I spent about $5 for both shirts. I left the white shirt as is (I know Ash has short sleeves but we live in Ohio so I wanted to leave the sleeves long). 

For the blue shirt, I removed the buttons and the sleeves (I cut the sleeves off right after the seam on the shoulder so that sewing a new seam was not necessary). I then sewed the collars up. Ash has a white collar so I pulled the white collar over the blue so the white was on top and the only collar showing. I then sewed up the front opening (the button side and the button hole side) of both shirts together. The only remaining part of the shirt was the yellow edging. I purchased a roll of yellow ribbon for about $2 and sewed it along the bottom of the shirt. I also used about a 2" strip of ribbon on each side of the shirt to make an appearance of Ash's pockets (I did measure these the seams of the shirt to make sure that both strips lined up acculturate on both sides. 

For Ash's gloves, I purchased a pair of green gloves from the dollar store. I cut the tips off each finger and then sewed up a seam on each finger to keep the gloves from unraveling. I did try to sew some yellow onto the cuff of the gloves to make them look like Ash's gloves but I ended up removing it. Since the cuffs of the gloves are elastic, it is difficult to work with. I thought the perfect addition would be a pair of yellow wristband sweatbands, but I never found any. 

The backpack was pretty easy for me because I actually had a green backpack (it was actually the backpack I used in high school). I then sewed a strip of yellow ribbon on the top of the bag and a strip of orange fabric over the top of the bottom pocket. Alex already had a stuffed Pikachu that he stuck inside the bottom pocket of bag just enough that his head kind of stuck out. 

The rest of Ash's costume was pretty basic. Alex wore the items I put together with a simple black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. We did end up seeing another Ash at the Zoo, but it was obviously one from Amazon. Alex made sure to tell me that he preferred my homemade one. :)