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| A dish of buttons... |
Some of our buttons come from clothing purchases and some from discarded textiles, but we crafters probably all have a big ol' bag of buttons "just because". Most of mine came from a dollar/discount store.
I don't have a regular need for buttons, but when I do need them, I like to have choices. And I learned long ago that buying a small lot of five buttons on a card will set me back more money than... well, more than what I want to pay.
Apart from what I've gotten with new clothing purchases, I haven't added to my button collection since I first blogged about acquiring them five years ago. During the intervening five years, however, I've likely used less than twenty buttons. My most button intensive project was the flat pack travel tray; I made three of them, so there went twelve buttons.
Which brings me to a recent conundrum, the solution for which was... you guessed it: buttons.
Many, many, many years ago, I bought a bunch of plastic hair combs at a dollar store. They've gradually broken after years of use and when I was down to my last couple, I decided to go to the hair accessories aisle of my local Dollarama to pick up a new supply.
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| All I wanted was a plain hair comb... |
At the risk of repeating myself, it was more than what I wanted to pay. (Nor did I need such elaborately adorned hair combs.)
As a last resort, I turned to eBay, and there, I picked up a set of five plain gold-toned ones for $2.80 (USD). They function as expected and aren't too slippery. A short time after receiving them, I started thinking about how I could jazz them up.
My first attempts involved using hot glue to attach faux gems and beads. Several weeks later, I was about to reattach one of those faux gems after it fell off, when — out of the blue — the idea to use buttons popped into my mind.
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| What a way to use up buttons! |
In no time at all, I had these made up. But the best part is that the embellishment is not permanent.
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| An easy to switch out embellishment... |
These are all buttons with a shank. All I did was slide the teeth of the comb through the shank. I can take the buttons off and replace them with different ones in seconds.
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| Isn't this a pretty button? |
It's not like this little hack is going to reduce my supply of unused buttons to any great extent, but I'm happy to be able to showcase some of these buttons in a different way.
So while the hair combs are embellished with buttons that have a shank, what can you do with buttons that don't have a shank?
Turn them into bag bling!
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| Two buttons turned into bag bling... |
Or zipper pulls... which I thought I had finished blogging about back in 2016. This is my Oriole Bag and matching pouch.
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| ... or zipper pull |
With a little bit of narrow ribbon (or embroidery floss or whatever thin cordage of your choice), thread two identical buttons together back to back, seal them with a bit of glue and you've made yourself some bag bling.
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| How to make your own "button bling"... |
While you're at it, you can surely add some other beads and baubles to make these truly unique.
I had never given much thought to button crafting until now, but apparently there are all kinds of things that you can make with buttons that will put a bigger dent in your collection than what I've featured here.
Here's my favourite out of the ones that I've seen:
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| Button trimmed tree as wall art... |
It's clever and truly looks like a work of art, i.e., not just an attempt to use up buttons. I might have to try that out someday.
What's the most unusual thing you've ever done with buttons?
Love your idea for using buttons on zipper pulls! I made my daughter a toy doctor bag and she wants me to tie a ribbon on the zipper so it's easier to pull. Now I can also attach a button! Now why didn't I think of that myself? :o)
ReplyDeleteKathleen - kakingsbury at verizon dot net