Lots and lots of buttons!

 


Recently, a good friend  – and keen WickiDoodle supporter! – asked whether I was interested in more buttons. Since one of my many mottos is "You can't have too many buttons", the answer was obvious. We met for coffee and out came her plastic bag filled with smaller plastic bags, each with a set of buttons. As you can see from the photo, quite a variety! My friend hardly knew herself what treasures lay within that bag. The buttons had been harvested decades ago, at a time when her mother worked at a charity shop together with several other women. 

Like so many charity shops with second-hand clothing, each donation first had to be tested: keep or discard? Only really worn-out items with no hope of being resold were discarded. The buttons, however, that was another matter. The steadfast volunteers would go through the pile of outcasts and meticulously remove buttons from shirts, dresses, jackets ... A remarkable commitment to recycling, way before it became a trend. A time when you kept anything and everything that could be used again.

Even more impressive was the way in which they carefully strung the matching buttons onto bits of cardboard or tied them together. I separate my buttons into useful categories like "big" or "color" and then put them into jars or other containers; as a result they get all jumbled up, and I have to spill them out on my work table to reassemble a set.

I received this serendipitous gift a few months ago and other than utter Awe and Ah, I haven't done much yet. Having said that, I did immediately grab a couple of wooden buttons to use them as noses. That seemed obvious. Now, there's only a 100+ more buttons to go – all of which will go back to charity, just in a slightly different shape 😊



P.S. The checked shirt used for the heads belonged to the husband of the friend who gave me the buttons. His mother-in-law would be very proud.


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