In 2004, I was Pac-Man. On top of that, Sarah was Inky, the purple ghost.
Ingredients
It was a challenge to design this costume due to its size and complexity. It's composed primarily of 3/4" PVC pipe, sprinkler hose, fabric, safety pins, and duct tape. It is probably best to design it all on paper before building.
The three pieces of pipe perpendicular to one another are 40 inches in length. (Note that 3 x 40" = 120" = 10 feet = 1 length of PVC pipe.) The other pieces were cut to be ~55". Basic geometric calculations will yield the rest of the lengths. The costume was designed to fit through a standard 32" door frame.
Once all the crossbeams were taped together, I found that there was no easy way to get the costume to stand. So, I stood it on the points of the mouth, as seen in the images. It was from this position that I had to make the rest of the costume, which was NOT fun.
In the images, there's a picture of me trying out the costume. This will give you an idea of its size. I'm 5'9" tall, or 1.8 meters, and the costume is almost as tall as I am.
I made straps out of duct tape and had to wear a belt around the duct tape straps to keep them close to my body. Note that this costume is nearly unwearable for more than a few minutes at a time.
I used the rest of the pipe and tubing to build a cool pirate ship outside my parents' house. Here are links to images of the pirate ship:
