What is it about opening a tin of buttons that sends you right back in time? My sister Sue gave me this tin last Spring and being busy, I stashed it on a shelf in the closet. Once or twice I've looked at it ... or moved it ... but today I opened it up for a quick peek. My mom worked at a coat factory when my sisters were little so had quite a stash of buttons ... and there were always huge ones that would have been on some glamourous jacket. But I remember the blue ones because they were on my sister's dresses!
In that same box of stuff that day was a bag of buttons ... they look so much better in an old strainer! A few weeks ago Sue's itty bitty grand daughter was in the hide out and the first thing she went for were the buttons. That little apple didn't fall far from the family tree ... straight down from Great Grandma!
I don't get why I can not force myself to pull buttons from these old button cards. Look at them ... they're duplicates for crying out loud! What is wrong with me?
I have my own stash of buttons I've collected over the years. Is it any surprise that my first 4-H demonstration at 9-years-old was about buttons? The history of buttons ... how to make a button display ... how to sew on a button.
Sue has the coveted Old Dutch Potato Chip can filled with all the buttons we used to dump out and play with under the table. But somehow ... shortly after Mom died ... I ended up with the small Emerald Walnut can. It's kind of scary to open because it's edges are sharp ... opened up originally by one of those old fashioned can openers. But that's ok because I know almost by heart what's inside. There are the white buttons with red deep inside the opening where the sewing holes are ... there's a terry cloth covered button from my Mom's bathrobe ... and there are the parts of my pink and gold bracelet waiting for someone to string them back together. Just catching a glance of it now and then makes me feel happy!
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Love buttons....jars and jars of buttons...
Posted by: Kelly Ann | 15 September 2011 at 06:25 AM
Oh, my. That brings back so many memories for me. I have some of my grandmother's buttons -- still on the cards -- and I wouldn't dare take them off the cards!
Posted by: Brenda from Conyers | 15 September 2011 at 08:02 AM
I too love buttons. New or old, I could just play with them all day ;-)
Posted by: Jocelyn | 15 September 2011 at 08:31 AM
That old Katydid can brought back memories. In high school, we used to sell Katherine Beich candies as a fundraiser each year. There was always a crazy theme; one year we re-wrote the lyrics to some of the songs from "Grease"...but I digress....
Love all those cool buttons!
Posted by: Cathy B | 15 September 2011 at 08:40 AM
My Mom used a Folgers coffee can...I treasure it!
Posted by: Mary | 15 September 2011 at 10:57 AM
I love buttons! I've started my own jar but your collection is fabulous!
Posted by: Stacy Lindblom | 15 September 2011 at 12:40 PM
I remember my mom's button tin. It was always so much fun to plunge my hand into the bounty and see what I came up with. Every time I go into an antique store, I'm on the look-out for buttons. My favorites are the molded plastic ones in the 30s and 40s colors. My sister and I are both drawn to them.
Posted by: Leslie Schmidt | 15 September 2011 at 11:30 PM
When I inherited my grandmother's treadle sewing machine one of the drawers had buttons in it. I can't bear to even take them out of the drawer! And never take your buttons off the cards - that just makes them more precious I think. blessings, marlene
Posted by: Marlene Bush | 03 October 2011 at 08:20 PM