I have been collecting buttons all my life. It is a habit I picked up from my mother who had a lot more uses for buttons than I do. She made, mended, and darned the family’s clothes all the time, and I remember fondly her sewing box that was once a biscuit tin. She also had a button box, but I am struggling to picture it. Perhaps one of my siblings will remind me.
In the days when I sewed and mended more, my buttons had more obvious value but for decades now I have rarely needed a button from the button box. We don’t keep our clothes for as long as we used to, and I mend only rarely. If I button comes off, I just sew it back on. They don’t seem to get lost, so there is no need for another.
Many new clothes now come with spare buttons, which strikes me as ironic since they would have been of more use forty years ago.The buttons come in little plastic bags or stapled to a card. Dutifully, I have always kept those spare buttons, just in case.
This evening it occurred to me that perhaps I could turn those decades of saved buttons into something crafty. I don’t yet know what, but just in case a creative moment strikes, I got out my button box and started sorting. I thought that if they were going to be made into an image or pattern, I would need them sorted by colour, so that is what I did.
In the process, I had to open all the little plastic bags, cut off all the wound threads, and unfasten all the staples. It took over two hours. Now they are all sorted into a muffin tray, ready for inspiration to strike. Any suggestions will be much appreciated. In the mean time, I won’t be making any muffins.
Snowbird of Paradise 
@snowbirdofparadise.com If you make a quilt, you could decorate it with the buttons! (I also keep all the buttons that come with shirts even though I hardly ever need them.) 😊
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But then I would have to learn to quilt!
Afterthought: Maybe we should combine button collections! We could call it a generational tip of the hat.
Hi Anne I too have saved buttons all my adult life! I share the fond memories of Mum’s button box. (I think Vera inherited her sewing biscuit tin.) I think the button box was cardboard and had a white background with a blue willow pattern on it. It’s a vague memory now though so may be wrong.
When I was doing therapeutic social work I was shown a way of using buttons to enable people to think and talk about their relationships with family and close friends. The idea was to choose a button to represent yourself and then select buttons for others and place them on a flat surface in relation to each other. It is surprising what emerges. E.g. I had one woman who chose a button for a person who had abused her granddaughter. She put it on the floor and stamped on it repeatedly. I gave my very large button box to other counsellors when I stopped. I had bought some of the contents from charity shops. I did though keep a small bag of buttons that represented my family at that time. I still have that! And I have gone on saving buttons so have a small button box still.
On the creative front, I once made a butterfly from buttons sewn to fabric. I had a card to copy that I had given to Jo for her birthday and she asked me to create the real thing. It wasn’t great but I think she liked it because I made it!!
Lots of love Carol xxxx
I love your story about using buttons as therapy. That is brilliant! I can think of a couple of people for whom I could assign a stamping button. 🙂
Great idea to colour sort them, and who knows what creative vein you’ve opened. 🙂
I had a large button bottle started for me by my mother in 1974. With space constraints from moving I sorted my buttons too, keeping some favourites. Not sure what I’ll do with them either, but they still bring me joy 🙂
It is an interesting phenomenon that so many of us find joy in just having a collection of buttons. .. and so many of us still keep all the buttons that come our way!
My Mom’s was a Danish butter cookie tin, and she kept her buttons in a baby food jar. I couldn’t wait until I was on my iwn and able to get a tomato pin cushion too. 😀
Ha! I still have a tomato pin cushion!
Me too!
I made a piece of art using buttons collected by a coworker who gave them to me. Boxes and bottles of buttons, oh my! All sorted by color. It is a mermaid.
Wonderful! I would love to see it.
Maybe I can find a photo. It’s in storage with my other pieces, waiting for me to bring them to paradise with me. 😕