Buttons, Buttons who's got the Button's ?

[bambi]

You know all of those x-tra buttons you get when you purchase shirts, pants,ect. what do you do with them all?
I can't throw them away so I just keep putting them in jars. So what do you use your x-tra buttons for?

 

[~gd]

You know all of those x-tra buttons you get when you purchase shirts, pants,ect. what do you do with them all?
I can't throw them away so I just keep putting them in jars. So what do you use your x-tra buttons for?

Well sometimes one gets lost or broken and I replace it with one of the few spares I keep.
I know Your type all to well we cleaned about 9 gallons out of my mother's house. I was all for tossing them but my sister went through them and removed all the old buttons and is selling on ebay to collectors (who knew there were collectors?) the rest we took to thrift stores who were tickled to get them since a lot of donated clothing is just missing a suitable button to make it saleable again. IF the button is visible the replacement needs to be a close match and have you tried to buy a set of matching buttons lately? A lot of clerks keep busy in these places finding matching buttons and sewing them on. They tell me that it is as much fun finding buttons as doing jig saw puzzles or msny other one person activity.~gd

 

[Marianne]

I have seen some wonderful mosaics made with buttons! Picture frames, little table tops, wooden boxes...

(uh, I have my own stash, too. I love old buttons.)

 

[ORChick]

My mother kept all the buttons from discarded clothing, and I inherited both the compulsion to keep buttons, as well as all those she had saved over the years. And also those that both of grandmothers had saved. I loved playing in the button box when I was little. Some of those older buttons are gorgeous - lots of shell buttons, as well as some nice metal ones off of blazers and the like. Little tiny buttons from evening gloves that my grandmothers wore, and that were later sewn onto my little girl dresses. I have them separated out by type - old shell white buttons, newer plastic white, colored, wooden, metal, cloth covered - and stored in small baskets in my sewing room; hardly takes up any room. If I had a place to display them they would be in glass jars. You never know when you might need a button - sometimes one goes missing, and I usually have a close enough match in my basket. Sometimes the buttons on bought items are just horrid, and then I replace them all. And they are there for whenever I get back to sewing; as was mentioned new buttons are very expensive, and I don't need to buy any . I have no daughters or nieces, so they will eventually end up at the thrift store - but not yet; I still sometimes like to play in the button basket

 

[bambi]

I agree, some of the buttons are so pretty and unique. I do wish I had an artistic mind that I could make a pretty box or picture with them, but this is not the case for me --- heck i can't even draw a stick figure Anyone else hoarding buttons and not knowing what to do with them?

 

[moolie]

ORChick, sounds like you have a lovely collection

I have a button tin filled with buttons from various garments and a few that were my Grandma's--she had a tin as well, and I wish I had been old enough when she passed away (I was 13) to have the gumption to ask my Grandpa for it, but who knows where they went once he sold the house--probably sold during the big garage sale.

I don't have a ton, but I can generally come pretty close to matching anything that gets lost

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

I always loved going through grandmas button tin..when I was little. They are treasure troves. I have seen the button tins for sale on ebay...just as they are. Not sorted or anything. I am thinking of buying one just to get the notions and buttons for my alterations shop I will be doing.

 

[SKR8PN]

My mother cursed me with the button saving gene, but thankfully it is a recessive gene. The Wife however, refuses to sew on a button! She will toss a garment for lack of a button, so I have taken on the role of "button saver and sew'r-on'r" in this house.