Beetlejuice with Carousel Hat and Hammer Arms Costume

After watching the movie, Beetlejuice, my family and I were inspired to make a motorized replica of the carousel hat and striped costume that Beetlejuice wore for our son, Aidan. We used a few incidentals that we already owned like Lego robotics, makeup, X-Acto knife, thread, regular tape, two oatmeal containers, black clothing & black clip-on tie. We purchased the remaining supplies at ACMoore, JoAnn Fabric & Michaels. We bought a few pieces of heavy duty poster paper in black & white ($2.99 each), double sided sticky tape ($2.99), one round foam disk ($3.99), black & white striped straws ($2.99), foam Halloween stickers ($1.99 each), white duct tape ($2.99), 2 heavy-duty dowels ($1.99 each), 3/4” red ribbon ($1.99), 1 yard of black fabric ($4.99) and dryer vent tubing from Home Depot for $20.00, which was our most expensive purchase.

COSTUME CLOTHING: The costume itself was fairly easy. We used a clip-on black tie, white dress shirt and layered it with black clothing my son already owned. We added white stripes by easily attaching white duct tape.

EXTENDED HAMMER ARMS: The extended hammer arms were constructed by placing a heavy-duty dowel through the dryer vent tubing (the tubing came in 20’ lengths, but you will be cutting it in half, one for each arm. Most likely, you will need to trim the tubing further to a length that is comfortable for you). We covered two Quaker oatmeal containers with white poster paper, added red ribbon and black circles to mimic the hammers. We drilled holes into the oatmeal containers and inserted the dowels.

“NO SEW” SLEEVE COVERS FOR EXTENDED HAMMER ARMS: To make the no sew sleeve covers that go over the dryer vent tubing, we wrapped the black fabric around the tubing (trimming excess fabric) and used the white duct tape to join the seams together and then added additional white duct tape to make the stripes.

ROTATING CAROUSEL HAT: We used white heavy duty poster paper for the tall base of the hat. We rolled the paper to form a tube that fit comfortable around my son’s head, but snugly. We fastened it together with tape and trimmed it out to give the hat some shape around his face. We added strips of black poster paper with double sided sticky tape to add the stripes. My husband designed and cut out the carousel shaped topper using white heavy duty poster paper (as pictured) and we taped it all together. On black poster paper, I designed and cut out several bats and attached them with double sided sticky tape around the rim of the hat. I also cut out bat wings and secured them with tape to the sides of the hat. I ran a long piece of thread through each of the black & white straws (leaving at least 1” of thread on each end). At one end of the string, I attached a foam sticker and I secured the other end of the string to the underside of the carousel topper with regular tape. We trimmed the round foam disk to fit snugly inside the tall base of the hat. This gave extra stability and formed the base support for the mini motor (from a Lego robotics kit) we used to “spin” the carousel top. We secured everything together with our trusty white duct tape. To finish it off, we attached a 3” piece of black & white straw with a foam skull sticker to the very top of the carousel hat.

Please feel free to see our costume in action at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFBZeSjt6Bw

Happy viewing!