DIY Halloween Costume: Barbara Maitland of Beetlejuice

This Halloween I had an idea of making the mask that Geena Davis' character wears in Beetlejuice. I researched different techniques, items needed to craft it and got to work ! It took longer than I anticipated, but it was a really rewarding project in the end :)

Items needed:

baseball cap, 2 wire hangers, acrylic paint (white, black, dark pink, light pink), duct tape, 2 ping pong balls, air clay, half yard-ish pink fabric, papîer mâché mix (newspaper and elmer's glue), paper towels/toilet paper, hot glue gun, aluminum foil, old sock

I first clipped the wire hangers and shaped them into a "U". I duct taped them to the hat in the position that I wanted, making sure to fully duct tape the entire outside of hat. Next I started to fill in the wire top and bottom with paper towels and toilet paper, to make a nice stuffed 3D mouth. I papîer mâché'd over the mouth and jaw hinge areas, letting it dry in the sun.

While that was drying, I formed the teeth using air clay. I made them all a little wonky and weird, you want to make sure that the bottom is totally flat, so it can easily glue to the mouth. I let them dry in the sun for a bit, then finished the drying process in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 min.    

I painted the ping pong balls white and put a little black dot on each for the eyes.

After the papîer mâché was dry, I painted the entire mouth area light pink. It took a couple coats to mask the newspaper.  I then glued the teeth on the top and bottom using the glue gun.



I took an old sock, cut the top part off and stuffed it with paper towels. I enclosed the sock with aluminum foil and kinda squished it into a tongue shape.  I then papîer mâche'd over it all and then painted it dark pink, putting a line down the middle to make it more tongue-like lol.

Hot glue the tongue in, the eyeballs on the back of the tongue and you're almost there !

To cover up the baseball cap shape, I hot glued the pink fabric over the top part and the bill, to kinda hide the fact that it was a hat.


And there you have it- Barbara Maitland has come to life !

Things to note: the mask can feel a bit heavy, so make sure to keep the stuffing/duct taping to a minimum to cut out some weight.   

Look for an 80's floral dress and some socks and loafers at a thrift store and you got the perfect DIY costume !

    

Back to blog

Leave a comment