Happy Howlween! Ila’s fairy obsession gave way to more wolfish pursuits this year, so this month for her 9th birthday I made her a wolf suit and she made mischief of all kinds in it. When Renae of Benzie Design spotted it she suggested a tutorial, sent off some gorgeous wool, and I set about planning to make wolf masks for our whole family. In between now & then we threw a spooky sleepover party for 6 of Ila’s little monster friends and the tutorial took a little longer then planned. Halloween is already upon us but luckily wolves are cool all year round + no matter where you live, so you can whip up this easy mask in about an hour for some creative adventuring any time!
**Credit for all the artistic genius behind these masks goes to the incredibly talented Juliette Collett of ZÜ. To make the masks I used her printable paper mask that can be found here on her beautiful blog!**
Gather your supplies!
- You will need 3-5 shades of white/grey/black felt-I used 12×18 sheets of gorgeous merino wool blend felt from Benzie Design in black, graphite, smoke, silver & parchment. The wonderful thing about these large sheets is being able to do full size adult masks!
- Print off 4 templates from here, for toddler sizes click “fit to page” before printing and for older kids and adults print without resizing.
- You will also need a marking pencil for tracing designs, a sharp blade, cotton elastic for the head band and optionally fabric glue or interfacing to add a little rigidity to the felt.
(click the image above to enlarge)
Steps!
- Using your cutting blade take your 4 templates and cut out each layer of the mask as it will be pieced together with your felt (you should have six pieces in total-the base of the mask, the whiskers/ears, snout, 2 eyes, and a nose)
- Trace each layer onto the colour of felt of your choice
- Carefully cut out & assemble layers-if using glue or fusible interfacing attach pieces together now
- Using a sharp cutting blade carefully cut through all the layers to remove the centre of the eye
- With a blanket stitch sew around the inside of each eye, with a straight stitch sew around the nose and any other places you want to firmly attach.
- Measure cotton elastic to fit around the head snugly and sew into place.
- Cover the sewn ends of the elastic by stitching down small squares of felt.
- Wear & howl fiercely!
Does your family celebrate Halloween-what are your costumes this year?
Where do you go about finding templates for masks like this? I’ve seen Star Wars, Disney princesses, and Marvel superheroes, but have no clue where to find the templates.
This was a big help. I clicked through to the template and was able to make a wolf mask for my son’s play. I used a combination of sticky-backed foam and felt and a little hot glue for the elastic. No sewing required! 🙂
Great mask! I run a small drama club after school and am looking for a quick way to make masks for a fractured fairy tale play the kids are putting at the end of the year. I love the look of this mask. Can make them myself, but was wondering where you found the inspiration to make the different shades to make it more real. Besides the wolf, I need mice, cat, pigs, and bears! I really like how dimensional yours look.