A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Hobbies, Crafts and Creativity Buttons

I am really attracted to buttons. I have jars of buttons from my mother and grandmother. I have scrimshaw bone buttons and really fancy metal buttons as well as plain old shirt buttons taken off of shirts before they were used for rags or quilts. I also like the cute new buttons and the shapes and sizes they come in.

These are southwestern buttons.

And more cutesy buttons
Animals, hearts and unicorns

Googly eyes, hearts, stars and mice

Airplane, keys, icecream cones, jingle bells and numbers

In the swap, I listed buttons on my wish list. I figured I would show what I meant.
ShiRl my swAp pal did good. She added fall leaves and butterflies to my button collection.

I used to have a ton of old buttons. After moving them from house to house for 15 years i finally sold the main load off to a friend. Then a year later i started crocheting those little purses and wished I had some of them back. I did keep a few of the oldies. And I have a bunch of the new cute ones too.

Well, When I sewed for my kids, I used them like crazy. But they've outgrown being dressed by Mom, so now I just have them in case......
Ted is picky about the feel of clothes so no buttons for him any more. He doesn't even like pocket or printed t-shirts or sweatshirts.
Jonni likes to look at my buttons. Maybe if I taught her how to make button necklaces and jewelry she would like them. Hmmmm, a new thought. Someday, I'm going to dress up a plain sweatshirt with a bunch for myself.

i love buttons too! i save them from when i cut up a shirt for quilting or rags too, the new ones are cute but i realy love the older ones, think cause they remind me of playin with my grama's button's in her button tin.
yeaars ago i started a button flower quilt, wish i still had it, lost it when we moved, i just needle worked with colored thred some flower petals n sewed buttons in the middle of the petals. huuuuuuum think ill put that on my next craft list to do :wink:

Like many of you, I've been collecting buttons for years. And I do use them. I love the old ones also.... the ones that are irregular because of how they were made so long ago.

I can't throw anything away with buttons still attached! Snip snip OFF! come the buttons (and zippers too) before the garment is discarded.

Merme

I remember as a child, just waiting to go to grandmas to play with her tin of buttons.

Tina, I remember as a child, my mother had a glass jar with a pretty, knobbed lid, full of buttons. She use to let me play with them and it was one of my favorite things! When she passed away I told my sister that the buttons was the one thing I wanted. One of my brothers daughter had already taken it!!!

I liked seeing your buttons. Did you want us to share pictures here of our buttons??

You could certainly share pictures. I posted mine to show Shirl that she did well.
Like my not knowing exactly what you meant by "small beads" in your wish list. Kind of leaves you wondering how you did?
I was also interested to see if anyone else collected these or something else similar. I also have fun patches (remember the 60's?).

Thanks Tina. Yeah, she did do good, adding to your button collection!!
Tina, I'm not exactly sure what I meant by "small beads" either, I guess!
But I said how much I love the beads you sent, so you did great!!! There is such a wonderful variety!!! It is going to be fun 'creating' things with all of them!!!!

I didn't get into the patches during that time....but I like them better lately! Which seems kind of weird of me!! Do you have any to show here?!

I have given quite a few of them to Jonni. She has pinned them all over her rag purses and backpacks and jackets. They just don't make the varieties these days that they used too. Lot's of them for bikers or new age stuff or cute little embellishment ones for babies but not the funny ones they had everywhere for years. They usually outlasted the jeans they were sewn on. I think my fav is a red and white bucket (think KFC here) with "Kentucky Fried Chipmunk" on it.

OK then.....Here are some of my buttons. I have collected these especially to use on my crazy-quilts.

These are more vintage look, I guess:


These I would classify as garden veriety:


And these are odds and ends:

I never got into collecting the pins that everyone was doing in the 80-90's. But my oldest daughter did. She had a denim purse covered in them that weighed about 5 lbs. empty. Her dinim jacket weighed even more.

Those are pretty, Shirley. I see 'em. I want 'em. I'm really not sure why, though.

Oh, I collected the pins then!!! I had a cowboy hat I wore to bars, and I was always collecting pins and putting on it. People, guys mostly, would give me pins for it !!!! I left that in CA when I move this way!!

Not really. I was born in the 60's

Shirley did I give you some butons in the box-o-goodies?

I want to go home and take pics of my buttons now.

Here is the last bunch I picked out to show.

Wooden ones:


Indian country:


And Playful odds and ends: And that's it!!

Those are fun, Shirley. I like the canoes, specially.

Thanks Tina!