We have updated our privacy policy. Click Here to review.

 Sign in

BigMex

Profile Blog Media Friends Groups Events Wall

2 0 0 8

AUG How to make a lucha libre mask out of a tee shirt!

12
How to make a lucha libre mask from a tee shirt. The ideal project for fans of wrestling, kids and emergency
Halloween costumes.

- by BigMex

Materials needed:
Give peace a
A tee shirt (men's medium size)
chance. - John
Scissors
Lennon
Pins

Lifetime Points: 6,158 Sewing Machine or thread and needle

Steam Iron
Last Activity: Jun 26, 2019
Heat Bond, Hot Glue Gun or Fabric Adhesive
Joined: Jun 4, 2008 Friends: 106
Different colored felt squares or fabric paint / markers
MORE INFO
Genuine BigMex mask template and face template (download here)

First thing is first, get all your materials together, print up a template or cut one out of a large piece of paper. I'm
Forum Activity lucky enough to have a printer that can handle tabloid-sized sheets at work. You can get the same dimensions by
taping together two letter-sized pages together (11 x 17 inches). Make sure you print up two copies for the left and
Replied to Street Fighter EX Series Lore
Questions on Jul 8, 2015 @ 9:07 PM CDT right side of the mask. Here are the dimensions of the mask in case you want to freehand it on an art board.

Replied to Street Fighter EX Series Lore

Questions on Jul 8, 2015 @ 10:07 AM CDT

Replied to Community Participation: Getting

to know each o... on Mar 29, 2012 @ 3:03
PM CDT
Replied to SSFIV Launch Event Carpool on
Apr 22, 2010 @ 9:04 PM CDT

Replied to Rarest of the Rare: The Street

Fighter Vault (N... on Apr 7, 2010 @ 1:04
PM CDT

Groups

Resident Evil
Created: Jun 4, 2008

Street Fighter
Created: Jun 4, 2008

Lost Planet
Created: Jun 4, 2008

Bionic Commando
Created: Jun 4, 2008

Dead Rising
Created: Jun 4, 2008

Capcom Town
Created: Jun 14, 2008

Capcom Cosplay!
Cookies on the Capcom Website
Created: Jun 19, 2008
We use cookies to ensure you have the best experience and full functionality of our w ebsite. If you continue w ithout changing your settings, w e'll assume that you are happy to
receive all cookies from the Nowyour
Capcom w ebsite. How ever, you can change takecookie
your tee shirtat(wash
settings it first!) then cut it down the side, from the sleeve under the armpit all the way to the
any time.
Capcom Music bottom. Repeat the cut on the other side so you have your tee split in half. Make sure to leave the neck hole intact.
I agree Find out more
Created: Aug 12, 2008

street fighter fan

Keyboard shortcuts
Created: Jan 12, 2010
 street fighter team vs street
Created: Jul 26, 2010

Recent Favorites

There has been no recent activity.

Now take your templates and place them on either side of the tee. Make sure they are centered and as close to
the neck hole as you can. Don't forget to cut out the eye holes on the template.

Lay the tee shirt flat on a table, this will make the next few steps easier. Pin the template to the tee and cut out the
pattern. Save the rest of the tee shirt for other masks.

Before you begin sewing the pattern together, very carefully sew a hem around the eyes, nose and mouth before
you cut it out. This will strengthen the material against tears. You can now take the paper pattern off of the material.

Now is when you should add the trim and details for the eyes, nose and mouth. The generic pattern is on my
second face template. When I made my Zangief-inspired Soviet mask I used heat bond on a couple of felt
squares. Felt squares are available from your local craft store for around 25 cents per 1'x1' sheet. On any edges
that didn't take I used permanent fabric adhesive or hot glue. You can also use fabric paint to draw patterns and
contrast the eyes, nose or mouth on your mask.

If you want to be fancy you can get a nice metallic trim if you use metallic foil gift wrap, foil tablecloth or even a
holographic effect if you use iridescent tissue. You can combine the foil and tissue paper and cut out small
patterns and affix them to the mask with permanent glue sticks.
Cookies on the Capcom Website
We use cookies to ensure you have the best experience and full functionality of our w ebsite. If you continue w ithout changing your settings, w e'll assume that you are happy to
receive all cookies from the Capcom w ebsite. How ever, you can change your cookie settings at any time.
I agree Find out more

Keyboard shortcuts
 If you are drawing a blank and don't know what types of patterns or color combinations you can use then get
inspired by the actual masks featured on Highspots.com. Make sure you affix the trim and hem the eyes, nose
and mouth before you begin sewing the four main parts together.

As my pal Darryl said "sewing curves is a pain in the ass." Even if you are good with a sewing machine it is still a
pain. If you are sewing by hand just be very patient with the four pieces. If you have never sewed before here is
how you do it. Put the two halves on top of each other, making sure it's inside-out, pinch two halves together and
sew them about 1/4 of an inch from the edge. Your seam will be inside the mask and clean on the outside.
Repeat these steps for the top of the head, the front and back. There should be extra material on the top of the
mask so you will end up overlapping a little. This extra material is actually meant for you to sew in an additional
flap if you wanted to make a mask with laces. You can tuck the extra material inside the mask and trim it once it's
sewn.

In case you were wondering, the ponytail on my El Fuerte mask is made of two brown felt rolls with a "hair pattern"
cut out and a yellow felt roll bound around them. I cut a hole in the back of my mask and hot glued a white felt
patch under the ponytail and then glued that to my mask.

If you are making two masks out of two different colored tees then you can use the extra material to make
streamers and sew them to the head or neck of the mask. I made "elbow pads" out of the remaining material from
two masks.

Cookies on the Capcom Website

We use cookies to ensure you have the best experience and full functionality of our w ebsite. If you continue w ithout changing your settings, w e'll assume that you are happy to
receive all cookies from the Capcom w ebsite. How ever, you can change your cookie settings at any time.
When you are finished your mask should be very snug. This is because unlike traditional lucha libre masks they
I agree Find out more do not have laces to bring the two halves together with a more reasonable tightness level. What if you want to
make something more authentic out of thicker or nicer fabric? Something that allows you to sew on a contrasting
material rather than hot gluing it? All you have to do is print up my template and sew an extra loose piece of fabric
Keyboard shortcuts
to the top back portion of the mask. This loose material will cover the hair. Then and add eyelets (grommets and
washers) to the back for your laces The extra fabric acts like a tongue on a shoe the wrestling boot is what
 washers) to the back, for your laces. The extra fabric acts like a tongue on a shoe, the wrestling boot is what
inspired the design and the four-part construction of the mask. It really hasn't changed in over 70 years. Check
the history of the mask if you don't believe me. All I did was think of a way to make one without the laces. Plus tee
shirt cotton is much more breathable and inexpensive.

Now it's up to you to experiment with the design, make changes on the template, sew in some laces for an
authentic look if you want. When coming up with the template I bought a bag of tees from the local swap mall, they
were inexpensive and good quality too. I think I'm going to add some non-functional yellow laces to my Soviet
mask. If you have long hair you can skip cutting out the top of the mask and just let your hair out over the sides like
the wrestlerPsicosis.

Have fun drawing patterns on your mask and personalizing it. Creating an identity for your masked alter-ego is the
fun part. I keep track of all the different templates I've created in a folder. Each mask has a different shape of the
eyes, nose and mouth. Keeping each template handy helps when tweaking your design and when figuring where
holes for your ears should go. Professional mask makers in Mexico cut their templates out of cardstock, like
cereal boxes. They also keep these templates organized in their own files. In this way they can always trace out a
new design, including the trim elements, easily and consistently.

I decided to silk screen a design on the front and back of a couple of tees, including silk screen "laces." These
masks will be a project for my cousins to try out. If these test out fine then I'll screen print a thin dotted line around
the template for an easy cut and sew pattern.

If you see somebody out there copying my idea and then selling them in a trendy shop please beat them up for
me.

Cookies on the Capcom Website

We use cookies to ensure you have the best experience and full functionality of our w ebsite. If you continue w ithout changing your settings, w e'll assume that you are happy to
receive all cookies from the Capcom w ebsite. How ever, you can change your cookie settings at any time.
I agree Find out more

Keyboard shortcuts
 Have fun making your own masks and share the projects that you make with the rest of the online community.

Have a great day amigos!!!

4.3 (2 Ratings)

9 Comments
Most Recent Top Rated First to last

0 followers FOLLOW CONVERSATION

BigMex
Lewis, you might have to scale down my template as well, maybe by a quarter inch to a half inch
so that if you are smaller the mask will fit tighter. Mind you I'm 6 feet 7 inches tall so a smaller
template and smaller shirt might work for you.

8 YEARS AGO LIKE REPLY

lewis
i was just wondering is it better to use a smaller shirt for a smaller head please can you reply

8 YEARS AGO LIKE REPLY

Mike
Hey Big Mex,

Great template/examples/instructable!

One question:

it looks like you might be utilizing the pre-existing neck seam from the original T-shirt to become
the new neck seam on the mask, but I can't tell for sure. Is that correct?... [show more]

8 YEARS AGO LIKE REPLY

Roland
Thanks for the AWESOME tutorial and templates. I needed a luchador mask for the 100th Bay to
Breakers run and was going to buy one before I saw this. Because of you, I had the *best* and
most *original* luchador mask there.

9 YEARS AGO LIKE REPLY

Maguma
Hey BigMex this is the dark ryu cosplayer from the street fighter events. Is this the same method
you used to make your latest El Fuerte mask? I'm plannin on cosplaying him very soon and I
wanted to know how you acquired/constructed your latest version as it looks fantastic.
Cookies on the Capcom Website
We use cookies to ensure you have the best experience and full functionality of10 YEARS
our AGO
w ebsite. If you continue w ithout changing your settings, w e'll assume that you are happy to LIKE REPLY
receive all cookies from the Capcom w ebsite. How ever, you can change your cookie settings at any time.
I agree Find out more
Show More Comments
Keyboard shortcuts
 You must be logged in to comment.
Login or register now.

0 / 2000

ADD VIDEO ADD PHOTO POST COMMENT

Capcom-Unity Corporate Directory Capcom Brands Terms of Service

Privacy Policy
News Capcom Japan Ace Attorney Contest Rules
Forums Capcom U.S.A. Street Fighter Cookie Policy
Games Capcom Europe Mega Man Copyright
Store Capcom Asia Monster Hunter Legal
Groups Beeline Interactive, Inc. Resident Evil
Members Devil May Cry
Support Lost Planet
FAQ Dead Rising

©2020 Capcom U.S.A. All Rights Reserved.

Keyboard shortcuts