Coolest Macaroni and Cheese Costume

by Jenni Heath
(Strawberry Plains, TN, USA)

Homemade Easy Mac Costume

Homemade Easy Mac Costume

My daughter loves Easy Mac and wanted me to make a Macaroni and Cheese costume for Halloween. I started with an old laundry basket I had lying around and cut a hole in the bottom for her to step into and wear around her waist. It was a nice fit, so no straps were needed at all.

I covered the basket with cardboard recycled from old Christmas shirt boxes and painted it to look like the Easy Mac bowl. Then I took another piece of cardboard and cut it to fit inside the bowl in front of her. On this piece I glued lots of macaroni made from recycled paper towel tubes, toilet paper tubes and wrapping paper tubes painted a very cheesy yellowish-orange. I connected more tubes with clear elastic to make the "hat".

The fork is made from another wrapping paper tube and cardboard covered with duct tape and spray painted silver. Believe it or not, all of these supplies were on hand and I did not spend a dime on this costume.

She won "Most Original" at her school Fall Festival and got lots and lots of compliments!

Comments for
Coolest Macaroni and Cheese Costume

Click here to add your own comments

Oct 12, 2008
 sweat XD
by: Danielle

omg...
i totally love this costume.
its so unfatigued and I've never seen anything like it.
nice job mom. lol
Oct 17, 2008
 Such a cute costume!
by: Anonymous

Wow,I am impressed!! That took some effort - lucky kid!!
Oct 18, 2008
 AWESOME
by: Denise/FL

That is the coolest! I love it so much - what a great idea!
Oct 20, 2008
 Great Costume
by: threerenos

This is great...I am making it for my daughter. My question to you is how did you paint this so perfect? it looks just like the label?
Oct 21, 2008
 Painting the label
by: Jenni

In order to get the proportions correct, I scanned an Easy Mac bowl into my printer and blew it up as large as I needed for the bowl to be. You may have to print it as a poster which will come out on several sheets and then tape them together. I then cut it to fit the laundry basket shape and sketched it on to get everything in the right place. If you aren't comfortable painting the words as I did, Sharpie markers would do just fine. Paint is best for the blue and macaroni though. I used yellow for the noodles and then went back over it with orange to give it a more cheesy look and to divide up the noodles a bit.

Let me know if you need any more help. Good luck.
Oct 22, 2008
 So creative!
by: Anonymous

Amazing! Just amazing! My only question is how exactly did you make the hat?
Oct 22, 2008
 Macaroni hat
by: Jenni

To make the hat, I took some of the tubes and made a basic ring out of them, stringing them on some clear elastic cord to fit my daughters head. Once I had the ring fitted, I hot glued more tubes to the top of the ring to give it a hat shape. When I put it on her head, I pulled her ponytails through openings on both sides which helped the hat stay on with out any kind of chin strap. You could probably make a hat by gluing tubes to a knit cap as well, just make sure you stretch it to the right size first before attaching them or the tubes might pop off when they put it on. GOOD LUCK!
Oct 23, 2008
 This is great!
by: Lisa

My son's kindergarten has a "no scary costume" restriction for the little ones. He's a big macaroni & cheese fanatic, so this will be perfect for him!
Oct 23, 2008
 Fantastic!
by: Dee

WOW! And I thought my costumes were great! (Well, they still are but...). That is SO creative! I love, love it!!
Oct 23, 2008
 WOW!
by: Palo Altan

This is so creative and well done! It's one of the best on the site!
Oct 26, 2008
 Made it and my daughter won
by: Lisa

My daughter just won the most original costume at her school's Spookin Fun Night. Thanks for the wonderful idea and helpful hints. I tweaked it a bit but still basic concept. LOVED IT
Oct 28, 2008
 WOW!!!
by: Kimmie

My daughter is soooooo excited to be this for Halloween!!! We started last night. Just have to paint the cheese on...
Oct 09, 2009
 Mac Label
by: Jezz

I'm not very artistic and wanted to know if you enlarged and copied the label then went over it in the blue, yellow, and orange colors or did you actually draw/sketch it from scratch? There's no way I will be able to draw/sketch the label myself.
Oct 11, 2009
 To Jezz...
by: Jenni

I actually sketched the label but you could take a label to Kinko's or a photoshop and have one enlarged and printed out if you don't feel comfortable doing it freehand. Good luck with it!
Oct 26, 2009
 best
by: Anonymous

Your costume is the best. Nicole Larson
Mar 12, 2010
 Another idea for the painting
by: Kristie

I have an old overhead projector and I used that to paint images on my kid's walls. I think I could hang up some cardboard and project the image of the Mac 'n cheese up there and outline it. Then paint it. That is idea for anyone that doesn't want to do it free hand.
Apr 21, 2010
 bottom of basket
by: Anonymous

What did you use to cut the hole in the bottom of the laundry basket? The plastic is pretty tough.
May 16, 2010
 i think i'm in love...
by: Anonymous

Jenni Heath you are my hero
Oct 15, 2010
 Label
by: Anonymous

HI! I love your costume, making it myself! However, the only thing stopping me is the label. My father tried printing it onto paper (like you had said) but that didn't quite work. He doesn't want to take it anywhere to get this done, so if you have any other ideas,that would be great!
Feb 05, 2011
 Mac Costume
by: Daisy

My daughter is making the costume for a project and we took t he label from a easy mac container to Staples after she cut it into three sections: the easy mac label (front), the nutrition label and direction label. The cost was only $3.00 plus tax. The paint is the most expensive piece, so we decided to use orange bulletin board paper; roll it up and hot glue to make the macaroni. She's still working on it, but I think it will turn out great!
Feb 19, 2011
 Nice costume
by: Anonymous

Pretty cool idea for the costume. Might want to cut back on the easy mac before your girl has a heart attack...
Jul 11, 2011
 awesome
by: Anonymous

Im an adult.. totally going to make this my costume this year,
Oct 07, 2011
 Willing?
by: Anonymous

Anyone willing to sell their old mac and cheese costume or make one to sell?
Oct 25, 2011
 how many
by: Anonymous

how many toilet paper rolls did you need for this?
Oct 30, 2011
 greatest food costume ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by: Anonymous

omg!that costume is sooooo awesome!I give the maker my regards.
Oct 30, 2011
 Toilet Paper rolls
by: Jenni

I don't know for sure how many rolls I used. I didn't just use toilet paper rolls, I also used paper towel rolls, cut in half, as well as wrapping paper rolls, cut up. Someone had a good idea of using yellow paper and rolling it up and making your own tubes. Would save time since you wouldn't have to paint. The painting was the most time consuming part of this costume for me. Good luck and hope yours turns out well :)
Nov 01, 2011
 Instructables
by: Nicole

I wasn't sure how to get ahold of you. Would you be interested in posting your instructions on Instructables? Is there a way for me to contact you?

Click here to add your own comments







Working from Home