Buttons pull us together day after day, fastening our skirts, cinching our cuffs, closing our jackets. And yet their indispensability often goes unnoticed until we discover one missing.
How things have changed. In centuries past, buttons were stars of the fashion world. "They were worn as jewelry," says Jacquie Hatton, president of the Friends of the Keep Homestead Museum in Monson, Massachusetts, which has one of the largest button collections on display in the country. "People clipped them off worn clothing to pass down as valuables," adds her daughter, Moira Hatton, another enthusiast. Carefully preserved in tins or boxes for reuse, these family heirlooms now turn up at flea markets and antiques stores and are picked over by shrewd collectors. You can buy a box of them for a few dollars, though a single beauty can cost several thousand.
You can take buttons out of their familiar sartorial context to showcase them on clocks, bowls and pictures or converted into a colorful necklace, bouquet and pins. You'll never take another button for granted.
How things have changed. In centuries past, buttons were stars of the fashion world. "They were worn as jewelry," says Jacquie Hatton, president of the Friends of the Keep Homestead Museum in Monson, Massachusetts, which has one of the largest button collections on display in the country. "People clipped them off worn clothing to pass down as valuables," adds her daughter, Moira Hatton, another enthusiast. Carefully preserved in tins or boxes for reuse, these family heirlooms now turn up at flea markets and antiques stores and are picked over by shrewd collectors. You can buy a box of them for a few dollars, though a single beauty can cost several thousand.
You can take buttons out of their familiar sartorial context to showcase them on clocks, bowls and pictures or converted into a colorful necklace, bouquet and pins. You'll never take another button for granted.
1. Button Bowl
Stick your button collection around a balloon (and importantly) to each other. Then simply pop the balloon, clear up the mess and you've got yourself a bowl.
Glue, buttons, cardboard and a bit of artistic ingenuity and you'll have yourself a great sign for your bedroom door (assuming you use the first letter of your first name). Stick it in a frame for best results.
3. Button Clock
Poke a hole through the center of the lid. Refer to the dial template to position the button hour markers. Affix buttons with multipurpose cement. To assemble mechanism, follow manufacturer's instructions.
Thread the buttons onto a felt House flower, making sure to keep excess string on the backside of the flower. This excess thread gets tied around a skewer stick, securing the flower to the front of the stick. A glue dot can help hold it in place. You can place your flowers in something prettier than a pop can, but better add flour or sand in the bottom first to help keep your skewer sticks from swinging around.
Lay out your design on the napkin, arranging the buttons in place then sew on the buttons. Using the disappearing-ink fabric pen, lightly mark out the leaf or stem of the fruit or vegetable. Stitch along the pen marks, using embroidery floss and a classic chainstitch or a stem stitch. To make a stem stitch working from left to right, make standard, slightly slanted stitches along the line, keeping the thread below the needle. For leaves, use a satin stitch, making straight (not slanted) stitches, each touching the next, across the width of the leaf.
Look through your collection of antique and vintage buttons and pick out some of the prettiest. Attach the buttons to bobby pins with a few stitches and secure them with super glue.
And If you don't have buttons, look for Supplies on MISI.
Happy Crafting! :)
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