girl wearing jack o' lantern face mask as Halloween costume

Crafts

Jack O’ Lantern Face Mask DIY for a Safer Halloween

An additional costume in our series of Face Masks for a Safer Halloween is the Jack o’ Lantern face mask. Like our cat face mask and skeleton face mask, you can jazz up your kid’s face mask to incorporate it into a Halloween costume. (FYI, the CDC has recommended that children make face masks a part of their Halloween costumes.)

Whether you are trick-or-treating or just staying safe at home, these are fun and easy DIY ideas that will keep things festive for Halloween.

Supplies needed to make a Jack o’ Lantern Face Mask:

one pre-washed orange cloth face mask (we made ours but you can purchase ones like these)
gold or black felt
glue gun, or embroidery floss and a needle
orange shirt or sweatshirt

Supplies need for the Jack O’ Lantern headband:

a black headband
a brown or gold chenille stem
brown or gold felt
a glue gun

How to make a Jack o’ Lantern Costume with a face mask

You probably don’t need a pattern for cutting out a classic jack-o’ lantern mouth and nose shape but here is one just in case. The most important thing to remember when making a face mask like this is that our faces are much more pointed than a fat round pumpkin so making sure your smile looks happy instead of sinister is a bit tricky. I recommend making sure the smile is within three inches and includes a pretty good happy curve upwards. You might want to play around with your shape on your kid’s face before you start gluing.

After you have your template cut out, make sure to glue the nose piece right at the top of your mask and then the mouth just a half-inch or so below. Most of all, make sure they are centered—unless you are going for an off-kilter jack o’ lantern face, which could also be really fun.

To make your jack o’ lantern headband, all you will need to do is cut a 1.4 x 3.5 (roughly) inch rectangle of brown or gold felt. Fold that in half around the headband. Curl up your chenille stem around a pencil to make a corkscrew shape and tuck it into the folded stem felt. Then glue everything together securely with your hot glue gun.

Pop the headband on your head, put on your jack o’ lantern face mask, wear your favorite oversized orange shirt or sweatshirt and you are now wearing a Jack o’ Lantern Costume!