A Slightly Sinister Giveaway
14 September 2009 | by jen in Free Stuff for You, Knit & Crochet, Movies & Books
Greetings, dears! October is only a few weeks away and Halloween, for me, always marks the start of the holiday season. So, I thought I’d celebrate a little early and give away 1 copy of AntiCraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister. Not only does this book contain the original publication of my Brier Rose Scarflette pattern, but a TON of other cool and creepy projects.
Here’s what you do: from now through Monday, September 21st midnight PT, leave a comment in this post describing 1 of the following:
- Your favorite Halloween costume that you have ever worn (and if you made it!)
- Your Halloween costume for this year (And, of course, if you plan to make it)
- Your favorite spooky story or book. (Ok, you don’t have to tell me the whole story, just the name and general plotline!)
A winner will be randomly picked and announced Tuesday, September 22nd.
Update:
You know, it just occurred to me that I should have posted a photo of one of my favorite Halloween costumes when I originally wrote this - ha! I just so happen to have one:
That’s me in the angel costume. My dad made the halo and wings (you can’t really see it but both are sparkly with gold glitter) and my mom made the dress. My parents did not like putting me in store bought costumes and made ours (mine and my brother’s) whenever they got the chance. I’m not sure I knew then how lucky I was to get such nice, homemade things but I certainly am now. (Next to me is a friend as a Barbie bride; I think I was jealous of her costume.)
Good luck!
What are your thoughts, dears? | ♥ 
14 September 2009 | reilly says:
Ooh!
My favorite Halloween costume I’ve worn is when I was Trini, the yellow power ranger! My mom made the costume.
14 September 2009 | Alicia G says:
My favorite halloween costume that i ever wore was a few years ago when facebook was just getting really popular, i was a facebook page. sounds cheesy but i wore all blue, made a huge science project like cardboard thingie into the facebook profile page, drew in all the stuff. It was a huge hit. I left the profile picture box cut out so that was where i poked my head through and i let people write comments on the “wall”. Everybody loved it!
14 September 2009 | Jennifer says:
My favorite Halloween costume was when I was a fairy princess ballerina! My mom made it and she went all out, there were yards and yards of white tulle!
14 September 2009 | Lavender Dreams says:
I am reading a spooky book right now. “The Little Stranger” by Sarah Waters. It’s about a big old mansion…a family that used to be wealthy but are not a little down and out…and the family doctor. Things keep building…and building and lots of little clues are given…and it gets more mysterious as the story goes! Very well written!
http://fromthehouseofedward.blogspot.com/ I saw it recommended on this blog!
14 September 2009 | Modern Crush says:
Hi Jen!! My favorite halloween costume… probably the year I was a Mouseketeer - yes, my dad dresses me up, made a skirt and everything, I think I was about 4, but then there was the black cat costumer I wore 5 years in a row - my dad sewed it out of an old leotard and even put a rolled up newspaper inside the tail to make it stiff (my dad was a genius costume maker!).
This year I plan to be (dont laugh!) Victoria from Twilight - where she is wearing the green ‘Kiss Me I’m Irish’ shirt and the fuzzy jacket-thing. My hair is red so I thought I could give it a try:) I do plan on making parts of it, especially the fuzzy jacket thing.
My favorite Halloween book was one I read as a child, and goodness me I cannot remember the name of it. Funny though I was planning to get it from my mom and post some of the pictures of it from my blog - thanks for reminding me. I sort of remember, the title had something to do with it being a very scary Halloween. And of course, who didn’t love the Bearinteen Bears Halloween?? Oh good memories Jen, I love this topic!! XO!!
14 September 2009 | Ammie says:
Fun, fun!
I can’t choose just one topic, so here are my answers:
My favorite Halloween costume was a milk maid, because I sewed the Renaissance era costume myself, and it has been so versatile.
This year I am sewing three lion costumes out of fleece, for a matchy matchy family costume and many hours of future dress up fun.
I’m a mystery buff, and I’ve fallen in love with Edgar Allan Poe again in my adult years. I love “The Purloined Letter” (about a lost letter) and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (about the mysterious and gruesome death of two women in their locked apartment). Poe’s always good for some good creepy storytelling.
15 September 2009 | ann says:
little red riding hood was the favorite, got to wear mums lipstick and really cool red shiny shoes. Havent read any creepy books, would love to hear about some. thanks.
15 September 2009 | Sophie says:
when I was around 7 I entered a halloween costume competition while on holiday. I was a charleston girl, wearing my mums beads and a feather in my hair made from sugar paper. I felt so grown up when the presenter introduced me, but when he asked ‘what have you come as’ I totally forget and ended up crying and had to be dragged off the stage. sad tale, but definately the best costume.
15 September 2009 | katie kalinovik says:
I love to sew costumes! I have tortured my kids for years with my “creations” every Halloween! My personal favorite was a vibrant bird costume made with jewel-toned silky fabrics sewn to a colorful shirt complete with wings and quilted breastplate. I did top it off (much to my daughters embarassment) with a bright orange beak hat and
tie-on over the shoe bird feet. (bwahaha!) I just recently finished a Prairie girl costume (pic on blog) just to see if I could “pull it off” and I think it came out great and my youngest seems to like it too.
15 September 2009 | Betsy (the cramped hand ) says:
The story that creeped me out the most is from when I was a kid , The Day the Dolls came alive , I don’t think it was intended as a scarey story but the dolls are mad at the little girl because she didn’t take care of them , one is walking around with her leg on backwards.
My favorite costume was a Raggedy Anne outfit my mother made for me I think I wore it 5 times.Obviously I have a doll fettish.
15 September 2009 | Lisa says:
Hmm - My favorite Halloween costume would have to be the year I went as an 18th century vampire. I made the entire thing myself, including jewelry (a silver and pearl choker w/a vampire cupid) and styling the wig. I also had to improvise on the pattern because none of the big pattern companies had come out with their historical patterns yet. My panniers were quite large, and I remember side-swiping a parking meter at one point. I look back on that costume and cringe at all the things I would do differently now, but at the time it was pretty OK and fun to wear.
15 September 2009 | Carol says:
My favorite spooky picture book is one I read to kids at Halloween in my old school. It was called, “The Wolves in the Walls” by Neil Gaiman. It isn’t a “Halloween” story, per se. But it has a spooky, creepy feel to it. Lucy knows that there is something odd about her family’s house. There are strange scratching sounds coming from behind the wallboards. She is convinced that there are wolves living in the walls after her brother tells her that “if the wolves come out of the walls, it’s all over.” That’s all I will tell you. It’s creepy, but quite funny at the same time.
17 September 2009 | RippenKitten says:
My fav Holloween costume has to be my Pirate costume. I made it from scratch! I love it because I always get compliments on it. This year I am looking forward to a Zombie costume! My B-Day is in the end of Oct. very close to Holloween and this will be my 30th. So the Theme is “30 going on dead”! I’m having everyone dress up like zombies, well eat some brains,and have a zombie walk as a pub crawl. Should be a deadfully grand time
17 September 2009 | Alicia says:
My favorite costume was vampire some ten years ago. I didn’t really have to do much, other than dying my hair darker, powdering skin lighter, and some fangs… I looked hot, though!
This year I’m wearing a simple brain slug (same as last year), from my own pattern (http://www.hookandneedles.com/2008/10/17/brain-slugs/).
My favorite scary story is Horacio Quiroga’s “El Almohadon de plumas” (The Feather Pillow).
17 September 2009 | Jillian says:
My best costume was when I went as the Charm Quark (I have a degree in physics, what do you expect). It was very sparkly, though I guess I “assembled” it more than made it. The nice thing about dressing as something that no one can see is that you have total creative freedom. This year I am going to be Swine Flu, I’m sure aspects of it will be home-made. I recently read Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book” and it is so amazingly excellent.
19 September 2009 | Jenna says:
Being born on Halloween, I’ve always enjoyed making and wearing my Halloween costumes. Since I became disabled, I’d get my service dog in on the action and even incorporate things like my cane. My favorite costume has to be when I dressed up like a housewife–jammies, bathrobe, slippers, curlers in my hair–and I made my service dog into a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner (complete with an electric cord tail and devil horns–so he was a possessed vacuum cleaner!) I ran a hose from his back to my cane and put a vacuum head on the bottom of the cane. We won first place in the Best Person and Pet category in Salem, MA that year. Here’s a link to the picture of us. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a382/magicatt/Halloween%20Salem%20MA%202005/ce0d.jpg
19 September 2009 | Judy says:
My favorite costume was a magazine.
I cut a black oversize t-shirt into a tank top that tied closed all up the back and sewed a clear vinyl pocket on the front to hold the magazine cover.
I made a plain black miniskirt and sewed a dozen or more clear vinyl pockets that held the magazine’s pages all around it. The pockets were attached along the left edge and velcroed to the skirt at the top right edge of the pocket so that the pages could be turned like a magazine and read.
I paired the costume with black hose and high heels. People kept coming up and turning the pages, looking at the magazine, all evening. It won second prize in the costume contest! (First went to someone — and rightly so — who had obviously spent weeks on his costume.)
The scariest book I ever read is “Dark Rivers of the Heart” by Dean Koontz. I consider his books a guilty pleasure, but this one was actually well-written, and the creepy serial killers and other weirdos scared the **** outta me!!
19 September 2009 | SteffanyF says:
This year I am going to be Velma from Scooby-Doo! I probably won’t make the costume, just scour thrift stores and the like. I already have short brown hair and wear black plastic glasses, so I’m almost set, actually.
19 September 2009 | Tsunami says:
Hmm, my favorite Halloween costume was actually one my mom made me when I was about 6. I was a black spider, with 6 pantyhose stuffed with polyfil and tied off in a couple spots (a la sausage) that connected to my arms and legs. Oh, did I mention there was awesome webbing holding it all together that had little plastic spiders in it? I totally had the coolest costume that year, my mom was the coolest DIY mom!!
21 September 2009 | Danielle says:
So far my favorite costume I’ve made/worn was being a silent-era film star…in black and white. I wore a 20’s- style dress and shoes (the dress was black and the shoes white) with gray stockings, and painted my face and arms shades of gray and white. I even made intertitles (the text that pops up in silent films) with basic phrases on them to use instead of speaking.
This year, if I can pull it off, I’m planning to go as Barbara Maitland from Beetlejuice.
I’m still a fan of ‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’, if only because the illustrations are so creepy, but the scariest book I’ve read has to be Stephen King’s ‘Pet Semetary’. Nothing scarier than confronting the inevitability of death and losing the ones you love!
21 September 2009 | Momo says:
My favorite Halloween costume I’ve ever worn was a Rainbow Brite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Brite) costume that my mom made for me for Kindergarten. It was exactly like the doll. It was so bright and colorful. I absolutely loved it. Wish I would have kept it!
22 September 2009 | Knittybird says:
My favorite costume She-ra from the third grade. It was store-bought and worn over my purple velour track suit (hey, it was the eighties). I still have the costume stored away. I’m thinking for this year, I will dress up as an Edward Gorey character with all the details of the dress looking like he sketched it. And my favorite spooky story is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.