Button, Button. Who’s got the Button?

 

March is National Craft Month, and since Woven Wednesdays is all about crafts I thought I’d start the month off right. Everyone knows about knitting, crochet, sewing, and quilting. These are fairly common crafts using standard materials. So, I thought I’d talk about an unusual crafting material. Have you considered the lowly button when it comes to crafting?

When I was a teenager, my mother and I used to go to this warehouse fabric shop and get material to make our clothes really cheaply. The also had a huge bin filled with buttons. Mom would always buy a mason jar of buttons every time we shopped there. Sometimes there would be enough matching buttons to use on a dress or blouse, but most of the time they were mismatched.

While Mom didn’t do much with her buttons, I discovered later in life that buttons were kinda cool. Buttons are not just for closing your shirts. They can embellish pillows, add creative touches to clothing, create mosaic styled pictures, add pizazz to your handcrafted cards, become the base for crocheted flowers, or decorate your hair. You can even create jewelry using buttons. And jewelry is right up my alley—costume, beads, real gems, or any other medium. Just ask my hubby.

Here are some  button items from the jewelry chests of my family members.

 

Antique matching button bracelet and earrings that I inherited from my mother-in-law.

 

Crocheted and fabric covered button pin (red and black) made for me by my sister-in-law and black and white fabric covered earrings that match a scarf I got from my mother-in-law.

 

 Button necklace, given to me by a cousin.

 

Note the small beads sewn on one side, which gives it a reversible look.

 

My niece Jacque’s button bracelet. Notice that it’s twice the width of my bracelet. Both Jacque’s and my bracelets are crocheted with elastic thread. The buttons are attached by crocheting the buttons to the band by catching the loop shanks of the buttons on the outer side of the elastic band.

 

These are only a few examples of the types of button jewelry you can make. For more ideas, just search the internet for button jewelry and get inspired to create using the humble, mostly utilitarian, but often beautiful button. My own research for this post set me off on a trip to the craft store. The possibilities for unique jewelry are endless.

Happy Crafting!

 

Don't forget to leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for the Shadow Series by Tina Pinson! Winner announced in the Weekly Windup on March 13th. Check out all of our great prizes on the Prizes Galore page.

 

Catherine Castle has been writing all her life. Before beginning her career as a romance writer she worked part-time as a freelance writer. She has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit, under her real name, in the Christian and secular market. Besides writing, Catherine loves traveling with her husband, singing, and attending theatre. In the winter she loves to quilt and has a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) in her sewing case. In the summer her favorite place to be is in her garden. She’s passionate about gardening and even won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club.

Her debut inspiration romantic suspense, The Nun and the Narc, from Soul Mate Publishing was an ACFW Genesis Finalist, a 2014 EPIC finalist, and the winner of the 2014 Beverly Hills Book Award and the 2014 RONE Award.