Make It With Momo: Create Pokemon Gym Leader Nessa's Logos, Part 1

At E3 in July of 2019, some new sneak peaks of Pokemon Sword and Shield were unveiled, and the internet fell in love with Nessa, the water-type gym leader whose style is as cool as her Goldeen's Mist attack. Many folks remarked an immediate desire to cosplay Nessa, and I admit, I felt the passion too! So, I excitedly rushed along to make my Nessa cosplay during all the hype, and I compiled a few tutorials along the way for future Nessa cosplayers to take inspiration from!

In this tutorial, I'll be providing you with free images that I digitally recreated for the following logos: The water drop/"Zene" logo, the backwards "R" logo, the numbers "049", the letters "JYJK", and the plateau logo. I apologize, since I have not played the game yet (obviously- it doesn't come out until later this year!), I honestly have no idea what these logos actually mean or stand for, so I just assigned the logos' names based on their literal text or shape for now!

Scroll to the bottom to download Nessa's logos for free!

This tutorial is somewhat advanced and requires special equipment, but there can be alternatives to some parts, such as using a blade to cut pieces by hand- if you can spare the patience! As always, there's more than one way to make a cosplay. This is simply how I did mine, so feel free to follow this tutorial word for word, or add some of your own ideas onto these techniques!

It is also in two parts, since the Water Drop logo had some extra steps involved. So this first half of my tutorial will be for the JYJK, 049, backwards R, and plateau logos. To see Part 2, click here!

Supplies:

finished crop top and shorts that may seem obvious, but in case it wasn't! ;P
white, red, green, blue, and black heat transfer vinyl for apparel
cardboard
clear packing tape
No Sew Heat n Bond
light blue spandex the color of the top of Nessa's water drop logo
Blue Marlin Design Master Spray Paint fabric paint of any kind can work, but this was my fave!
color printer
parchment paper
ruler or tape measure
iron or heat pressing machine
Scissors or Blade + Cutting Mat
Computer, tablet, or phone that can run design software for a cutting machine
cutting machine such as Cricut, Silhouette, etc. along with design software and cutting mats
Optional: cutting machine tools/accessories, sewing machine

After procuring these supplies, you’re ready to get started! Some of it will not be used until Part 2.

Step 1: Prepare Your Garments

Before creating and cutting this logo: make sure your garments (crop top and shorts) are fully sewn. You’ll want to know what they look like and how the fit on you when they’re fully finished and after all alterations are made, because everybody's size and shapes are different, so each person will ultimately have to decide the sizes of the logos for themselves. Printing off some scale tests onto paper can help you visualize before you move on to cutting! It is okay to have some inaccuracies of the scale and placement if you can't seem to get things exactly identical- just make them whatever size and placement you feel works best for you!

Step 2: Design Your Logo

In your design program, work on one individual logo at a time. Import the images and scale all items such that they are the same size and line up properly when laid over each other. If you need to change the color of the images, feel free to do so. It can help you visualize the images together!

Next, group the items together so they can move as one, but don't flatten them- that way they can still maintain their individuality, because we’ll be cutting two to three different materials, so we still want two to three different items in the design work space.

For the logos that are duplicated on the shorts and crop top, like the 049, backwards R, and water drop/Zene logo, once you are happy with the scale and placement for one logo, duplicate the grouped of image. One group will be for your shirt, so it will be slightly larger. The smaller logos will be for your shorts, of course! I prefer to cut only one size at a time, though!

Step 3: Cut Out Your Logos!

Time to take it to the cutting machine! Make sure everything is mirrored in your design work space/software before sending it to the cutting machine. And when placing your heat transfer vinyl (or HTV) on the mat, put the glossy side down. For black, it can be hard to tell which side is glossy, but some HTV sheets will have a slight "navy" appearance to their backsides. Make sure the navy side is face up. Place the sheets in the top left corner of your mat, and load the mat into the machine, and let it cut! Switch out vinyl colors for each cutting step of each logo.

Refrain from cutting the light blue part of the water drop logo just yet. We will come back to that soon! It requires some preparation of the fabric beforehand.

For the fabric applique for the water drop logo, see Part 2 of this tutorial!

Step 4: Remove Unwanted Vinyl

Peel away any vinyl that you do not want in your project, such as vinyl in the negative space of the image, and inside the lines of the 0's, 4's, 9's, etc. Be gentle so as to not damage the images that you do want though! This is where those cutting machine tools can come in handy! But you can do just fine with your own fingernails or creative use of some basic household items as well.

Step 5: Prepare to Iron

Before ironing, be sure to read and understand the instructions provided with your heat transfer vinyl sheets. Not all sheets are created equal, and some have special requirements, such as warm peel vs. cool peel. Also be sure to test all of this on a scrap before moving to your final garment! Trust me, I didn't, and I fudged up my first application onto my shorts, ahahaha.

Preheat your iron to the desired setting. I recommend using the wool setting, or about 305 degrees Fahrenheit. You'll want to use slightly less heat and less pressing time since we are working in multiple layers, meaning the bottom layers will have to withstand more time under the iron. Also check to see if all of your visual elements line up when you layer them over each other. If there is an issue you should correct it now before moving on!

Step 6: Iron Material to Garments

On the garment, use the iron to press on background layer first. Use medium pressure and press for only 5-8 seconds in all areas until it is adhered enough that it doesn’t peel up with the clear sheet. Perform additional pressing if needed, and remove clear covering when it has adhered, and then let it cool off a bit. Next, line up the second layer of vinyl onto the already pressed vinyl. Use parchment paper over top of all vinyl aspects to prevent the HTV from sticking to your iron. Press for 5-8 seconds with medium pressure. Repeat this process for logos that are tri-colored, like the plateau logo.

Step 7: Checkpoint!

Check all vinyl that you have applied thus far to see if any additional pressing is required. Do not over-press, or the vinyl could shrink up. If everything so far looks good, then you're ready for part two!

The second part is separate because it is a bit trickier due to the of the gradient design in the water drop logo. Because I didn't care for how my printable heat transfer test was coming out, I had to get creative here! So read on to Part 2 to see how I put it together!

Part 1 of Creating Nessa's Logos is Complete! Continue on to Part 2!

Thanks so much for reading!

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Download Nessa's Logo Templates

Because all of Nessa's logos require two or three layers, I have provided both the fully finished logos, along with the same logos that have been separated into their various layers. This is so that you can easily layer and arrange them in your design programs. Please note- these are my best attempts at interpretations of the logos, but they are not official art. Some minor differences may exist!

Click on the links below to be directed to a page where you can download all of the images!

NOTICE: Download link is under construction, but will be coming very soon! Check back in a short while to get your Nessa logos!