Button Trivia

On my blog reading today I see that Sue at I Sew Quilts has been on a recycling theme so I thought I would show you how I have used the empty coffee jars that somehow just appear in our cupboards.  I have been gradually sorting out my button collection into different colourways with another jar for novelty and decorative ones.  Great fun but very time consuming so it is probably no wonder that I only finish my projects when deadlines loom.

Talking of buttons, a quote that amused me by American Journalist, Heywood Broun (1888-1939) is:
"Men build bridges and throw railroads across deserts, and yet they contend successfully that the job of sewing on a button is beyond them.  Accordingly, they don't have to sew buttons."
Is that a cry of protest I hear from the office upstairs?

Buttons do not just serve a functional purpose as they can add great charm to a project -

If you are really keen you can follow the guidelines in the book shown below on making buttons:
"Cover your piece of wire with a square piece of calico, which you must double over the corners, and sew firmly in the middle; afterwards stitch the button round close to the wire, or else work over the wire the button-hole stitch, and in the centre, work a little regular star to set it off."

The buttons seem to be another collection that multiplies when the lights are out perhaps by the same elves who are responsible for a triangle that disappeared from beside my machine for a block that I  had pre cut yesterday.  Maybe the fabric piece is in the magical place where all the missing socks are!!!

Till next time
Frances

Comments

Sue said…
Francis this is a great way to use up the coffee jars- Don't you just like running your hands through a whole load of buttons and what a great idea to have a button tree. Most men think sewing is women's work.
I always wondered where odd socks went, I am sure their is another planet out there where they just hang out together hoping the other one will turn up eventually
July 1, 2010 at 8:19 PM
Joy V said…
Frances, you and I do soooo much the same - my buttons are all sorted into coffee jars too! Should put up a pic on my blog. Maybe over the weekend.
Love those novelty ones. Tell Peter that my boys can sew buttons on their shirts.......
July 2, 2010 at 12:07 AM
Shirley said…
Some of life's little mysteries along with the one shoe left at the road side. Never a pair. I did lots of little jars and put a fabric cover and ribbon over the lid and sold them at our sales table. Who can resist a pretty jar full of buttons. Have you ever come across Dorset buttons Frances?
Shirley.
July 2, 2010 at 5:17 AM
Radka said…
Oh yes, Dorset buttons, you can see my blog, I love making them!
As for all the other buttons, I am sure they are having parties when I am not looking. I always think they are all sorted, but when I go back, they are mixed up again!
July 16, 2010 at 5:48 AM
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