I'm sorry that this is a wee bit late. But, here goes!
How WONDERFUL is a BUTTON?
Well, I think they are most wonderful, until...
I start to think about making a button hole...those, I don't
really like to make...although, I've made quite a few of
them in days gone by.
Yesterday... I did a post...a poem about
Buttonhead. And, I promised to show you a few of
my buttons...the sewing/clothes kind. =)
Some of these are newer and some older. I have
some of my most WONDERFUL- fond memories...when visiting my
grandma...because, I sorted buttons for her. With needle and
thread I would "sew" together all the buttons that looked
exactly alike. These "sets" would be all ready to be re-used
...on a new garment.
My grandma told me that she never gave away any of her
old, worn-out or too small clothes without taking
ALL the buttons off first. When, she was little, she said
buttons were hard to come by. Taking off the buttons, before
giving the clothes away...was taught to her by her mother.
Many times, I've left the buttons on the card until I
was going to use them. Obviously, there were some
planned sewing projects that never "grew" into a real
"live" garment...that needed these buttons. Unfinished
clothes items? Who? Me? aaaaw come on...
Many of the buttons in the group below are at
least from the 70's or before...some are
also from my grandma's button box.
Just above...
if you notice, the two bottom grey matching
buttons that kind of have a bar across the middle of
the inner circle? These are heavy metal ones, heavier than
a coin of the same size. I'm not sure what the exact content is.
I'm remembering, vaguely,
...I think, grandma told me these were taken from
military clothing.
This picture below...you can see that there
are still threads on the buttons. Yep, these were
ones that had been removed from previous made
clothing...original thread still attached.
The two sets, below, are ones that I actually
sewed together when I was about
7 or 8 years old...while visiting my grandma.
This photo is the top of one of my curio cabinets.
And, I've put buttons from my grandma's
button box, in a jar..to display them.
I'm really grateful for these special
WONDERFUL BUTTONS.
They connect me to my grandma.
While writing this post...I've felt a bit bad that I
don't display grandma's buttons so that they can
be seen and enjoyed with more detail...maybe, I need to
do this! Do you have some suggestions for me?
What about you do you have buttons passed down generations?
Or, some very special ones?
16 comments:
How funny that you posted about buttons. I have a post in draft form that I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the history of a button. I was going to post it tomorrow. I don't want you to think I'm copying you! I have pictures like you do of buttons from my great grandmother and grandmother as well as some from my childhood. I have them in the same jar she had them in - an old canning jar. I LOVE buttons. They are little bits of color and texture and sometimes art. Thank you for posting about it. (Please don't think I'm copying you tomorrow when mine goes up! I promise I've had it written for a while now. Too late to change, too, because I won't have time until next week to write a new one.) BTW, I also hate making button holes!
I also love buttons and have quite a collection ,some from fleamarkets and some from my aunt .I especially love the older buttons and the shell buttons. You have a lovely collection.
Fantastic buttons.... and I loved looking through yours... something about playing with buttons? One thing I regret not bringing when I immigrated... my grans old buttons!! (but the button basket came!)
Hugz
I love buttons! We had a huge jar of them in our house when I was growing up. I liked to dump them out and sort them.
Good antique buttons are hard to find now without paying a small fortune.
I love buttons too! I did a post last fall about some antique buttons I had purchased at a local shop. Like Monica said, they cost a forture to buy now! I do have several jars of old buttons, my Mom's, mine and a large collection of still carded vintage/antique buttons. I still play with them and so do the kids but at least I am starting to make projects that require the use of buttons! I hate button hole too, so those projects are limited!
Buttons are like M-M's and just like us collecting frabrics, threads, different batts, all those tools and gadgets, rulers and rotaries - it's all part of the grand scheme. I would like to see more quilters post their little collections. Hmmm, I have a few of those buttons, and I loved sorting thru boxes and tins to string 'likes' together or to put them on a 'card'. It was a favorite project with my greatgran.
What a great collection of buttons you have. Thanks for sharing them and your memories!
Your buttons are wonderful and how special to have buttons from your Grandma's collection. I adore buttons and also have some of my Grandma's box. Mine are in jars so I can see them and smile. Happy button collecting...
I love love buttons and I too do not throw anything away with a button on it, button comes off first. Enjoyed seeig your collection.
What is it about buttons? Those small, round, smooth tidbits of time?
I also cut the buttons off of clothes that are on the way to the rag bag! I have a few tins & jars with buttons and I don't even sew clothes. LOL But I like to look at them & touch them & play with them. I remember one of my favorite toys was a button threaded onto a doubled string that I would spin & spin & spin & it made a sort of whirrring sound.
Thanks for sharing your buttons with us!
LOL, LOL, I am so laughing at that comment post 3 above mine. You might want to remove it! That is if you are an American woman.
For the gentleman that doesn't like American Women...It seems you have obviously had a very bad experience with one or more of the American women in your life. Since this post is about buttons, I thought perhaps your problems with American women has something to do with having a bad time getting the buttons on their clothing undone when the "time was right". Those buttons can be tricky sometimes. Especially the vintage buttons.
I'm loving all these posts about buttons. I have a real love affair with them. I lost my mom to breast cancer in 1976 and my dad brought over my mom's little two drawer sewing cabinet because he knew I would love it. It was like a beautiful treasure to me. It is small, just about two feet high, 16" wide and 12" deep, dark wood, all scratch up from years of use, it has two little drawers and a lift top with spool holders in the top, spots for scissors and other accessories. The day dad brought it over to me, I opened the top lid and there was a bottle that had been my grandmothers, full of buttons! A few from my great-grandmother, lots from my grand-mother and of course a nice collection from my mother's sewing years and my own. I love to just dump the bottle out on a place mat every now and then and just look over all the buttons and imagine the stories the old ones could tell me if they could only speak. I've planned use some of them to embellish projects with but just can't quite do it yet. Some day maybe! Hugs...
One of my favorite memories from my maternal Grandmother is playing with the buttons in her button box! When she died, I was asked if there was anything special that I would like to remember Grandma. Of course, I said the button box. Thanks for your wonderful post.
I love this post! I have some very special buttons too - I used to play with my grandmother's buttons, but she was blind for many years [until her corneal transplant] and didn't sew. I think your military buttons might have lead in the composition? You have a wonderful collection!
For the buttons on cards, I would frame them...I've seen it done and really like it. I have mine in small glass jars, easier to sort through when I need one. Years ago, I made a small wallhanging for my son, and sewed on a LOT of buttons for him to play with - I have a picture somewhere, remind me and I'll post it. They were all kids buttons and he loved it. *I* loved the poem on it best. There's lots of things to do with buttons!
A wonderful button collection of memories... 8-)
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