Plague Doctor

I've always been fascinated by the aesthetic and the history of plague doctors.  The way that they hid their identities from their patients and their patient's families due to the...less than desirable parts of their profession is super interesting to me!  I was also inspired by the kawaii aesthetic, I really like turning things that are traditionally portrayed as evil or scary and turning them into something really cute, and I thought that a pastel plague docor mask would be a good place to try that!

I used a pattern and instruction video from Dieselpunk.Ro, a youtuber with a lot of leatherworking videos about steampunk style masks.  My first step was making the mask out of cardstock and hot gluing it together so that I could figure out if it would fit, and once I was sure that if did I switched over to the final leather.

The first steps were cutting, dying, and hole-punching the leather.  My first try on the dying ended up too magenta for what I was thinking of, so I switched those pieces so the suede side was up, and watered down the dye for the remaining pieces so they got a more lavender watercolor effect.  I ended up adding more breathing holes than the original pattern to help reduce how often my glasses fogged up.  I also opted to use the pattern with the stitching along the nose instead of the rivets, since this was my first time doing a project quite like this.

Next was stitching!  The way that the pattern was cut helped the mask take shape as I sewed it, which was super cool to watch.  It's entirely saddle stitched, except for the underbeak seam, which is cross stitched so it holds its shape better.

The last step that I did was putting the rivets onto the straps and attatching them to the mask!  I shortened the strap that goes over the top of the head, and once I did that it fit pretty well.

I think that the mix of suede and skin gives it a really interesting effect, and that the lavended turned out really nice.  The contrast stitching in pastel yellow also really helps drive home the kawaii inspiration!  The darker spot on the suede also helps give it a feeling of history, it almost feels like a potion or ointment was spilled on that side of it.

I think this project turned out really well!  My glasses and the mask's lenses do fog up quite a lot when I wear it, I'd add more breathing holes if I ever make another or something similar.  It's also a little tricky to get on without messing up my bangs or the rest of my hair, but if I just lean into the 'crazed medieval doctor/Victorian occultism revivalist' character I think it works.