What you need:

1. White tuxedo, sport coat or blazer to use as the costume base
2. Black or colored dress shirt, if you would like contrasting cuffs to stick out
3. Black Fabric Paint
4. Paint Brush
5. Paint Marker
6. Plastic Drop Cloth
7. Scissors
8. Colorful Buttons
9. Velcro
10. Sewing Machine or Needle and Thread/Embroidery Floss
11. Seam Ripper
12. Glass of Water
13. Empty Bowl to mix paint and water in to thin it
14. Paper Towels

Step 1: Remove the Sleeves If So Desired

I decided to remove the sleeves on my jacket, because it will become stagewear for a band in Florida and it's hot as heck here!
Use the seam ripper to open the sleeve seam on the outer fabric and liner
After I took the sleeves off, I used a sewing machine to stitch the outer fabric to the inner fabric to the liner, securing the shoulder pad. I did this in a messy, zig zag and big stitched fashion because it is a distress and destroy project.
I forgot to photograph it before I painted it so the photo showing the stitched arm hole is already painted.

Step 2: Begin Painting the Stripes

For this jacket, I wanted it to look distressed, destroyed and messy as a grave yard character would have!!
Here's how I painted it:
1. Using a black paint marker, I hand drew the stripes on, marking the black ones with an "X" so I knew which ones to paint. I used a photo of the original BeetleJuice Jacket, show below as a reference.
2. Then I took the black paint, added some to a bowl, then added some water to thin it out a bit and began painting the stripes. The photo show, shows that I applied the paint directly to the garment and then smeared it around, this technique did not work as well as the previous one I just described.
3. As you can see, the stripes are runny and bleed, I achieved this effect by thining out the black paint and then brushing the area between the black paint and white fabric with water on the paintbrush to make it run.
4. If you start with the back of the jacket, it will give you a chance to test out your skills and perfect them before you move on to the more visible parts of the jacket.
5. Proceed in painting the stripes one section at a time. I let each section dry for a few hours until I moved onto the next section.
There were places where the black bled through to the other side, but since this was meant to be a messy job, I didn't worry about it, it just added more character to the piece.

Step 3: Trade Secret* How to Costume Rig the Shirt Cuffs to the Jacket Sleeves!!!

As I mentioned earlier, this jacket was made as stagewear for a band, so I used a Costume Rigging trick to reduce the bulk having to wear layers of clothing. Because I made the jacket sleeveless, I still wanted to keep the cuffs and make them an optional part of the jacket.
Here is how you costume rig jacket sleeves, or in this case, I only used the bottom part and made cuffs:
1. Cut off the Black cuffs of a button down dress shirt like the one shown and open the outside edge so they lay flat
2. Take the White Jacket Sleeve and Cut off that cuff, in this case I cut them about 6" above the end of the cuff
3. Stitch the Black Cuff to the inside of the White Sleeve so that when you flip it over it looks like a normal jacket sleeve with the cuff sticking out. You can do this by machine or by hand
4. Then I "Psycho" stitched the around the outside of the Cuff to seal the edges, loose ends and insides from falling out in a helter skelter, zig zag and messy fashion. A perfect job for a beginner!!! If you don't have a sewing machine you can take thick embroidery floss and hand stitch it with big messy stitches in the same fashion to secure all the layers together and give it a messy decorative detail
5. Then I removed off the original buttons on both the black sleeve and white jacket and replaced them with contrasting and colorful buttons I hand stitched on with embroidery thread
6. The last step is to add velcro to the sleeve so that they can be taken on and off quickly!
You just made a theater quality quick change garment with expert costume rigging techniques!!

Step 4: And Voila, Here Are Some Pics of the Finished Jacket!!

I safety pinned the cuffs to the jacket so they wouldn't get lost!!
If you have any questions or comments you can email me at:

Gina@PsychoSeamstress.com

Founder of Fashion Incubator Design House
1400 S Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, FL 32805
www.psychoseamstress.wordpress.com
Find me on Facebook.com/PsychoSeamstress

Cheers!!