7 DIY Plague Masks You Make At Home For Halloween

Hands down this is going to be one of the most popular Halloween costumes for 2020 but what is going to make your Plague mask stand out from the rest? Sure you could buy a plague mask or you could DIY something amazing!

And do you want to know a little bit more about the mask before you make your own plague mask for your costume? I had to do some research as to be honest I didn’t really know the history of the plague mask before writing this Halloween post.

A plague doctor was a physician who treated victims of the bubonic plague. In times of epidemics, these physicians were specifically hired by towns where the plague had taken hold. Since the city was paying their salary, they treated everyone, wealthy or poor. Wikipedia

So why the beaks? These doctors were all about the weird stuff, they believed herbs would cure them, so the beak was filled with herbs as if to “filter” the disease before reaching the mouth of the wearer. This mask is very popular in Venice and is worn at the yearly festivals. It’s not so fun now though is it.

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The costume is usually credited to Charles de Lorme, a physician who catered to the medical needs of many European royals during the 17th century, including King Louis XIII and Gaston d’Orléans, son of Marie de Médici.

This one is pure baby-gift sweetness. The Honey Baby Bear Applique Machine Embroidery Design from BabyEmbroideryShop is a digital download on Etsy, and it’s marked as a Bestseller on the listing. Etsy also shows the shop with a 5 out of 5 star rating, and the item itself has a 4.9 average from 18 reviews, with 100% of buyers recommending it.

What makes this design appealing is how versatile it looks. The listing describes it as “a cute little baby bear machine applique design suitable for any item,” and the preview images show a soft teddy-bear style applique that would suit baby blankets, bibs, nursery pieces, or personalised kids’ clothing. It has that classic sweet-bear look that works nicely for baby makes without feeling too fussy.

From a practical point of view, the file includes 5 sizes — 4 inch, 4.5 inch, 5 inch, 6 inch, and 7 inch — which is always helpful when you want a little flexibility for different projects and hoop sizes. The formats listed are DST, EXP, HUS, JEF, JEF+, PES, VIP, VIP3, and XXX, and the item downloads as 1 ZIP file. As with most machine embroidery files, it is worth checking your machine compatibility before buying, but the format list is fairly broad.

There’s also a nice amount of buyer feedback here, which is reassuring when you are buying from an independent Etsy shop. Recent reviews mention that it embroidered nicely, stitched out wonderfully, and looked super cute, with one buyer even saying they would come back to the seller for more pattern needs. Etsy’s buyer highlights for the item include “Beautiful,” “Great design,” “Cute,” and “Adorable,” which feels very on brand for a baby bear applique.

The shop itself looks well established too. BabyEmbroideryShop is based in Adelaide, South Australia, has been on Etsy for 10 years, and Etsy shows the shop at 4.9 from 3.6k reviews with 55k sales. The listing also notes that the seller usually responds within a few hours, which is always a nice confidence boost if you need help with a file or format question.

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