DIY Plague Doctor Costume with Free Pattern

Create a hauntingly authentic Plague Doctor costume with our free pattern! Craft your own medieval-style mask and cloak for a DIY Halloween masterpiece.

This epic DIY Plague Doctor Costume is going to be a hit this Halloween!  It’s super easy to create an authentic plague doctor mask with this free printable pattern.

Too busy to make this right away? Pin it for later! Pin this post to your favorite board on Pinterest and it will be there when you’re ready!

Every year my kids challenge me to create unique DIY costumes and this year was no exception!  In the past we’ve made a Functioning Demogorgon Mask, Beeker Costume, Mario & Luigi Go Kart Costumes and a whole family of Angry Bird Costumes!

When you’re growing up in the middle of a global pandemic, dressing up for Halloween as a Plague Doctor is very appropriate in my opinion!  I think that this will be a classic, popular costume this year.

Plague Doctor History

• These were medical professionals who treated people for with the bubonic plague.
• They worked in the middle ages during the black death during the 17th and 18th centuries.
• Plague doctor attire included: beaked masks, a wooden cane, leather hat, black cloak and leather boots.
• The full-face mask was a kind of respirator that housed aromatic substances like lavendar to counter the smell of death and prevent them from becoming infected
• Charles de Lorme was one of the first doctors to treat plague patients in a beak-like mask.

I have detailed every step of how to create this plague doctor outfit for you.  It’s very easy with this step-by-step tutorial, promise!

Supplies that you’ll need to create this costume

(affiliate links)

• Printable pattern (linked below)
• Large leather bag
• Cardstock
• Black Sharpie marker
• Scissors
• Tape
• Pencil
• White chalk pen
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue sticks
• Two small black jar lids
• Black waxed cording
• Leather needles
• Long black jacket
• Black balaclava
• Leather black gloves
• Wide brimmed hat
• Cane or black staff

How to make this DIY Plague Doctor Costume

I have included photos along the way but if you have any questions at all be sure to drop me a message.

1. Print the pattern onto 8.5 x 11″ paper.  Cut it out and tape it together to be sure that the fit is correct for your mask.  

I used a large black leather bag that we found at the thrift store.  The bag does not need to be genuine leather, just have the look of leather.

We scavenged all of the embellishments off of the bag to use for costume details later.  This is not necessary but makes for an awesome finished look!

2. Use a white chalk pen to trace the pattern onto the leather.  Important: add 1/4″ to each piece of the pattern.  When tracing simply draw the line 1/4″ away from the edge of the pattern.  This gives us a salvage edge to wrap around our base and stitch together.

Don’t forget to add 1/4″ when tracing the pattern onto the leather.

3. Cut out the mask pieces from the leather.

4. Trace the pattern onto card stock using a pencil.

5. Cut the pattern out of card stock.

Now you should have two sets of the mask pattern.  One set of card stock and one slightly larger set of leather.

6. Trim the corners of each leather piece at an angle.  Basically you just cut off a tiny triangle so that the corners lay flat when glueing.

7.  Use hot glue to wrap the edges of all of the leather pieces around all of the card stock pieces.  We originally tried doing this with double sided tape but found hot glue to be the better choice.

Now all of your mask pattern pieces are sturdy and ready to be assembled.

Optional Eye Detail

I found these jar lids at Michaels to use as glasses.  We used a sharpie to color in the clear plastic but still have it be see-through.  The black acrylic paint was used to paint over the silver detail.

Be sure to have something that is see-through for the eyes on this mask.  You do not need these lids!  You could use black mesh or plastic instead.

I found leather working needles and black cording at Michaels.  The leather needles are important because they make piercing through the material way easier!

8. Sew all the pieces of the mask together to create the beak shape of the mask.  I used a basic stitch and laid each mask piece wrong sides facing before sewing them together.

Work the needle in about 1/8″ from the edge of the piece.

Your finished seems should look like this.

9. Glue the eye pieces to the mask.  This can be tricky as the eye hole will bend and move.  Work slowly around the hole to glue the eye piece into place.

Your eyes should look like this.  Tip: we found super glue to work better than hot glue for this delicate area but use caution whenever you use super glue!

10. Stitch around each eye.  This edge is purely decorative, I did not stitch the eye to the mask as the layers of leather would be difficult to get through.

You can stop here and simply glue mesh or plastic to the back side of the eyes for a completed mask.

Details of the stitching around the eyes.

At this point I use super glue to affix the spice jar lids to the mask.

11. Using the straps of the bag make a strap for the mask.

12.  Glue the straps into place using hot glue.

13.  Add coordinating embellishments to the rest of the costume.  I used hot glue to glue pieces to the jacket and umbrella that we used as a staff.

Costume details over the entire body and leather ensemble created our final image of the plague doctor.

Our finished bird beak mask!

I absolutely love how authentic this mask looks! These creepy masks brought around the early modern period of medicine.

Using the embellishments from the leather bag really helped to add texture and detail to the whole medieval doctors costume. Can you imagine seeing this masked figure in a long black coat treating you for the black plague?

We tested out paint, black marker and sharpie and found the Sharpie to be the best medium to use to colour the plastic black.

And while stitching around the eyes was tedious, it was well worth the effort!

Costume of death details

We found our jacket at the thrift store, the hat at a local halloween store, the balaclava, gloves and umbrella (staff) at the dollar store.

The costume all put together!

I love how customizeable this plague doctor costume is!  You could add a cane or lantern, embellishments to the hat or mask to make it truly unique.

More of our crafting essentials

• We love using these Apple Barrel Acrylic Paints (aff link) to add bright color to all of our projects.
• These paint brushes (aff link) are ideal for most craft surfaces and a great price!
• This art supplies kit (aff link) is our favorite because it has everything we needed to get started.
• This rolling storage cart (aff link) helps to keep our craft supplies organized.

Download the free printable mask pattern by filling out the form below:

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