DIY Beetlejuice Halloween Costumes

DIY your own Beetlejuice and Lydia Halloween costumes using only thrift store clothes and not only will you have best handmade costumes out there, but you’ll save a ton of money in the process too! As soon as they see that iconic black and white striped suit they’ll be screaming Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

I’m not gonna lie, the idea to dress up as Beetlejuice for Halloween was not that of my kiddos. Did they even know who Beetlejuice was when I proposed it? No. Were they on board after watching the classic 80’s horror flick? Yes!

I actually had this idea in 2020. And we all know what year that was! But I was hesitant to put that much time, energy, and money into handmaking EPIC Beetlejuice costumes, because I wasn’t even sure we would get the chance to wear them.

So I sat on it for an entire year and in 2021 I brought the idea to fruition! This was going to be the second year that I went all out making Halloween costumes, the first year was Pennywise and they were so fabulous that I wasn’t sure I could top it!

The challenge was this….how are all 3 of us going to coordinate and dress up together? I immediately thought of Beetlejuice and Lydia, but that left one Twin out.

I didn’t want the boys to have the exact same costume so I got to thinking. What if one twin was Beetlejuice in the classic black and white suit, and the other in the maroon wedding suit?

And from there the DIY Beetlejuice and Lydia handmade Halloween costume frenzy began!

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How to Shop for DIY Beetlejuice Halloween Costumes

The best way to find what you need is to save a bunch of Google images to your phone so that you have them as reference photos to take with you thrifting.

Now don’t go saving photos of other peoples DIY Beetlejuice costumes, save photos from the actual movie so that your inspiration is coming straight form the source and you can get as close to the real deal as possible. Here was my main inspiration… (I looked at and saved LOTS of other photos too)

When you are at the thrift store, keep an open mind! Remember that things can be cut, sewn, dyed, torn, pieced together and altered to make it what you need! I’m not gonna lie, for these DIY Beetlejuice and Lydia costumes, I ABSOLUTELY lucked out on what I found.

Maddox was the “traditional” Beetlejuice with the black and white suit, so his was pretty easy to shop for. I knew I’d never in a million years find a black and white striped suit, so I was just looking for all white so that I could paint the stripes. I even thrifted the black tie as well. (he may or may not have been wearing all girls clothes…shhhh don’t tell LOL)

Justice proved to be a little more difficult, but I kept on looking and got exactly what we needed. I really scored with that little girls scrunchy ruffled shirt! I don’t know what they are called, but I remember wearing them as a kid! The colors weren’t a perfect match, but it totally worked in the end.

For myself, I found the perfect old 90’s style prom dress that was bright red. Who cares that it didn’t quite fit? I only had to wear it for a night! I grabbed a red Tutu to go along with it and wore it around my neck and shoulders rather than my waist, and it looked exactly like the real deal in the wedding scene of the movie. Paired with some long red gloves I found on Amazon and the look was complete.

For the wigs, I had to spring for new ones at Spirit because I just wasn’t able to find anything thrifting. I got 2 “Benjamin Franklin” wigs and then doctored them up from there.

How to make your own DIY Beetlejuice Halloween Costumes from Thrift Store Materials

Let me show you how I pulled this all together. This post of course will not be a step-by-step tutorial because the items that I used you most likely will not be able to find at your local thrift stores. But use this as inspiration and for ideas of how YOU can make your own DIY Beetlejuice and Lydia costumes for Halloween!

Traditional Black and White Beetlejuice Suit

I accomplished all of the black stripes by using masking tape and taping off stripes on the entire white shirt and white pants. My masking tape was super thin, so I had to use two pieces to get the right width, but if you had thick tape then one strip should do.

This was SUPER time consuming, but pretty easy to do.

Then I took black Fabric Paint and painted the entire shirt, making sure not to get any black paint on the white parts.

I let it dry completely before peeling off the tape, and when I did I was amazed by how clean and crisp the lines were!

I worked in sections at a time, because the entire process took me a good couple of days to complete. Here is how a completed sleeve looks once all done and dried.

I continued this same process on the pants, doing vertical stripes on those.

After several days and lots of patience, here is the completed Black and White striped Beetlejuice suit!

Thats pretty much the only DIYing involved for the Black and White Beetlejuice suit. Now for the Maroon Wedding Beetlejuice suit!

Maroon Wedding Beetlejuice Suit

Justice’s DIY Beetlejuice costume was far easier to make than Maddox’s since all I had to do was add some lacy trim to the sleeves and pocket.

I just hot glued the strips around the end of the sleeves, and doubled them up to make them a bit thicker.

I got a maroon bow tie on Amazon, but it was far too bright so I dirtied it up using Antique Wax.

I added some grey small polka dots to finish it off.

Thats about all we had to do to accomplish the Maroon wedding suit look.

DIY Beetlejuice Wigs

The wigs started as a Benjamin Franklin wig that looked like this….

I used scissors, my regular hair products, an old brush and green temporary hair color to transform it into DIY Beetlejuice Wigs.

I cut them up, undid the stitching (the hair is sewn in layers) from the front 2 layers to make the hairline go farther back, and basically mangled it to get the look I was going for.

Once the hair itself was Beetlejuice-y enough, I had to make the forehead look like his too. For this I used white liquid latex, Reindeer Moss, and white face powder.

I used the liquid latex as a glue to hold the Reindeer Moss on the wig forehead. You can look at reference photos while doing this to know where and how much to put (I did this same thing to the actual boys face when I did their makeup).

There wasn’t much to my Lydia costume besides just putting it on. I got black wig on Amazon that I added some red tulle to, to make it look like a veil. The best part is that I made a “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” by printing the cover image from Google, and gluing it to the front of a thrift store book.

The completed DIY Beetlejuice Halloween Costumes

This was the first year that we entered a Costume Contest at the El Cajon Halloween Haunt Fest!

And we won FIRST PLACE! $100! The boys were soooo excited. I think it was the first time they ever saw a $100 bill.

We had such a blast this Halloween! I didn’t think I could ever top the DIY Pennywise Costumes that we made in 2019, but I truly did amaze myself! Next year…Edward Scissorhands! (*coming soon*)

Are you going to hand make your Beetlejuice Halloween Costumes this year? Shoot…are you gonna make your Halloween costumes at all?! If you do, I’d love to see it! Pop on over to our free Craftspiration Facebook group, and join in on the fun by posting a pic of your Tiered Trays, DIY’s and crafts. I just love to see all your creative and crafty creations!

If you’ve got a million projects on your crafting ‘to-do’ list like I do, than you need my FREE Craft Project Planner so you can plan to make *all the things*! When you sign up for the craft planner, I’ll also send you lot’s of fun, easy, and budget friendly ideas for you to fill it up with!

Until Next Time…

Stay Crafty San Diego!

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