Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Button, button, who's got the button?


What ever happened to my mom's button jar?

I got to thinking about it yesterday after we were getting ready for church. The Shepherd asked me if his collar looked straight and mentioned that he had lost the button off it after he put his tie on.

I told him to keep the button and I would sew it back on for him. He seemed surprised - like maybe he didn't know I knew how to sew?

I remember sitting for hours and looking through the buttons in that jar. There were some pretty cool ones (like the blue flower shaped ones in this picture I snagged off of Microsoft's Clip art website.) Maybe it was that when things wore out, they would take the buttons off before they threw the clothes in the rag bag - don't want buttons on the rags - I suppose they would scratch what ever you were cleaning. Prettier pieces of fabric were reused in quilts. Don't want buttons on your quilt, I suppose, either.

Maybe it's that a lot of things don't have buttons any more - I know most all of my pants are elastic waist bands. (even the ones with buttons on them!) . Oh, well, thoughts to ponder, I suppose.

5 comments:

Sharon said...

My mother had a killer button jar. I have one, not nearly as well stocked. Recently I had to fish through it for something reasonable to replace a trouser button that Ian had lost. Years ago I knew what the buttons went to. Maybe I once knew where these went too - just more stuff to forget.

Kathy said...

I have my grandmother's button bag with all the buttons from the early 1900s on. I, too, sat for hours looking at all the buttons...wondering if they would ever be used on a piece of clothing again.
I have come to view them both with awe and wonder - that I have all these buttons, but still lose socks in the wash never to be seen again. Maybe those old wire hangers turn into buttons?
There are some so small I wonder how they attached them as they only have one hole.

vlb5757 said...

When my friend Willie Wae died more years ago than I can remember, a group of friends were asked to sort through her old crafts. I got all her buttons. I have jars of them. I can't bear to use too many of them because they belonged to her. Thanks for the memory. I haven't thought about those buttons in years. I have to go and get them out and take a look at them.

Leigh said...

I love buttons. I have a hard time not buying unique ones. I have mine sorted by color and or type in one of those gadget boxes with all those little drawers from the hardware store.

Franna said...

Oh! I have two jars of buttons, common and unique, from my Grandma. I used to play with them for hours when I was little and my Grandma was alive. When Grandad passed away, I got the buttons.
:-)

- Franna