Here's a mask I created to go along with a Little Red Ridinghood costume that my wife wore one year. Not content with the latex masks widely available I decided to make my own out of fake fur and a baseball cap. Though created for a Halloween party, this wolf mask could also be well used for children's theatre. You could also use it as a werewolf costume.
As you can see, my face is visible inside the wolf's mouth. This, I explained, was because my face was the Hunter looking out the wolf's throat getting ready to make his move. You could also combine it with a black see through mask (or even black pantyhose) like I did with the Parrot Head Hat if you don't want your face seen.
I began construction by building the muzzle down from the hat brim with black craft foam. This gave ma a base for the fur. As you can see in the photos, the head was covered with three distince pieces of fur. To achieve the effect I wanted I started with three rough cut strips of fur slightly larger than I thought I would need. I began with the top, center piece and painted a stripe of fabric glue about half an inch wide down the middle to secure it tentatively to the hat. This piece I cut longer so that it would hang down my neck and tuck it to whatever shirt I wore. The center strip starts at the top of the nose, and makes the top of the muzzle. When it reaches the spot where the brim meet the rest of the hat, that's where the eyes will be , so the fabric should fan out to create the brows and then continue upwards to the ears. Glue the top down.
The side pieces of fur meet in the front beneath the nose and continue to wrap around the back beneath the the neck flap. I used the same process of gluing a small strip down, trimming to the shape I wanted and then gluing the rest down.
The nose is just a folded piece of black craft foam glued in place.
The eyes were painted buttons, and I cut the fur around the eyes in the typical diamond shape of a wolf's eye and tucked the top of the button underneath a flap of the top strip of fur.
The lower jaw was constructed out of 1/2 inch upholstery foam and attached to the bottom of the hat with a large button as a hinge. The teeth were added last, c
ut from 1/4 inch white craft foam and glued in place.
For the rest of the costume I made really simple fingerless gloves out of the fur and really simple shoe covers. The nice thing about using fur like this is that you can't get caught up too much in fiddley details because they just won't show. Finish it off with either a flannel shirt and jeans or go the Grandma disguise route and find your self a nightgown!.
As you can see, my face is visible inside the wolf's mouth. This, I explained, was because my face was the Hunter looking out the wolf's throat getting ready to make his move. You could also combine it with a black see through mask (or even black pantyhose) like I did with the Parrot Head Hat if you don't want your face seen.
I began construction by building the muzzle down from the hat brim with black craft foam. This gave ma a base for the fur. As you can see in the photos, the head was covered with three distince pieces of fur. To achieve the effect I wanted I started with three rough cut strips of fur slightly larger than I thought I would need. I began with the top, center piece and painted a stripe of fabric glue about half an inch wide down the middle to secure it tentatively to the hat. This piece I cut longer so that it would hang down my neck and tuck it to whatever shirt I wore. The center strip starts at the top of the nose, and makes the top of the muzzle. When it reaches the spot where the brim meet the rest of the hat, that's where the eyes will be , so the fabric should fan out to create the brows and then continue upwards to the ears. Glue the top down.
The side pieces of fur meet in the front beneath the nose and continue to wrap around the back beneath the the neck flap. I used the same process of gluing a small strip down, trimming to the shape I wanted and then gluing the rest down.
The nose is just a folded piece of black craft foam glued in place.
The eyes were painted buttons, and I cut the fur around the eyes in the typical diamond shape of a wolf's eye and tucked the top of the button underneath a flap of the top strip of fur.
The lower jaw was constructed out of 1/2 inch upholstery foam and attached to the bottom of the hat with a large button as a hinge. The teeth were added last, c
ut from 1/4 inch white craft foam and glued in place.For the rest of the costume I made really simple fingerless gloves out of the fur and really simple shoe covers. The nice thing about using fur like this is that you can't get caught up too much in fiddley details because they just won't show. Finish it off with either a flannel shirt and jeans or go the Grandma disguise route and find your self a nightgown!.
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