This week’s very lucky winner is SueBeads! Congratulations! Please send your postal address to the ABS Suggestion Box to receive a Jangles Pendant from Jennifer at Jangles.
I love your buttons! I would like to know how to put buttons on my garments, but also be able to take them off easily. I want to wash my coats and sweaters without my art buttons attached so they won’t get damaged.
Sincerely,
Ima Button Freak
Dear Ima,
Today is your lucky day! I have a quick solution! Keep reading…
Start with an art button. A needle with a large eye. Make sure the needle fits through the button holes. 18″ of ribbon for each button to match your garment.
Thread your needle with your ribbon. From the back side of your garment, mine is a chenille coat, bring your needle through to the front of your garment.
Take the needle through both button holes then back through your garment to the inside.
Take your needle off of the ribbon and tie in a pretty bow.
Ta Da! You’re done.
Now when you wear your coat open you see a pretty ribbon tied in a bow. When you need to wash your garment, untie bow take off the button & ribbon and wash.
You can easily re-attach your art button again after cleaning.
It takes maybe 2 minutes, tops.
Option #2
If you’re not into pretty bows try this.
Use 8″ of ribbon threaded onto your needle for each button. Start on the outside of your garment. Take the needle through one of the buttonholes and garment, then back up through the garment and other buttonhole. Tie in a knot.
For more dimension add a bead on top of the button using the same directions as above, then tie off using an overhand knot.
Show the world how beautiful you can be using art buttons and ribbon!
Will the real “Ima Button Freak” please stand up?
Tell me why you are the real “Ima Button Freak.”
You will win 2 Round Celtic Knot Buttons.
Choose from one of 4 colors, Cherry Red, Sea Mist Green, Caramel or Grape.
Sincerely and Lovingly,
Tari aka “The Button Lady”
also aka “Ima Purple Freak”
Creative Impressions In Clay
EmandaJ
December 20, 2008 at 7:42 pmOoo, ooo, pick me!
I’m a button freak and have been since I was a toddler. My great-grandmother had this amazing jar of buttons she would let me play with when I was tiny. When she died, my mom inherited it and she continued to collect buttons for utilitarian purposes. I loved playing with them too, running my fingers through them and smelling that strange mixture of dust and metal. Today I still play with buttons, but they never seem to make it onto my clothes. My I please have some beautiful celtic buttons to put into my jewelry?
Emanda
Tari of claybuttons
December 20, 2008 at 8:18 pmLOL Emanda! My you are “Ima Button Freak”
My mom had a tin of buttons. My twin sister and I would put the tin on the floor and run our fingers through the buttons also. Buttons are so tactile.
Kids are amusing to watch at shows with buttons. To them they are colorful toys to sort and play with. They always want mom to buy them some. I started handing out misfired beads on hemp twine. It’s a treasure they walk around with the remainder of the show, playing with.
Donna
December 20, 2008 at 8:28 pmI love the ribbon tie idea. It makes selling polymer clay buttons easy. I now have a good way to attach/remove them for laundering.
Thank You
Tari of claybuttons
December 20, 2008 at 8:42 pmThanks Donna! I like easy! Especially in a busy house.
gail w.
December 20, 2008 at 9:54 pmI love the idea of removing buttons.I can save money at dry-cleaners-I'll remove buttons& handwash the shirt.Change buttons on sweaters & get a different sweater.Great idea and one that I will use.I like cutting things & changing them,remember the kitchen table?Thanks for the idea.Tari,these buttons are so beautiful.I love the red ones,and the grape.I love them all.The button holes are like in camo.!
Tari of claybuttons
December 20, 2008 at 10:22 pmThanks Gail! I’m happy you will use this idea!
cindy
December 20, 2008 at 10:44 pmNot really a button freak, but I do love the Celtic knots! I’d love to win!
Round Rabbit
December 20, 2008 at 11:43 pmI’m a huuuuge button freak (and just a freak in general)! I’ve been collecting buttons since around the age of 8. Antique buttons play a big role in my jewelry designs and now and then I make my own.
I just love your ribbon ideas!!
-Nancy
Fab Fibers
December 21, 2008 at 12:43 amWhat a great ribbon and button idea! I’m a big button freak. I have jars of extra buttons from clothes, buttons from off shirts and antique buttons from old wool coats. I use buttons in my bracelets and necklaces for clasps. I especially love srt buttons. Those are my personal
“keeper” buttons. I have a ggod stash of those too…lol!
LiisaAnn
December 21, 2008 at 1:54 amHi! I love the Celtic knot buttons and colors. I’m going thru a sea greens and blues phase so that one esp appeals to me. I’m a button freak cuz I love to buy buttons when they are 50% off, but I don’t know what to do with them. And also any buttons that come with new clothing in those tiny plastic bags I keep, I just can’t bring myself to let them go, although I’ve never needed to use one of those buttons.
Tari of claybuttons
December 21, 2008 at 3:53 amHi Cindy, glad you like the celtic design! Sorry for the crappy out of focus photo. I battle with the digital a lot!
Tari of claybuttons
December 21, 2008 at 3:56 amNancy aka Round Rabbit, we like freaks here. Freaks and weirdos are what make the world go round. You could be the next "Ima Button Freak!" I used to work for F&W and we used to say it stood for Freaks&Weirdos!
Tari of claybuttons
December 21, 2008 at 3:58 amRosanne aka Fab Fibers, you are a Fab “Ima Button Freak!” I know you have some great art buttons in your collection 😉
Have a great Christmas with Heather coming to town!
Tari of claybuttons
December 21, 2008 at 4:02 amLiisaAnn, I save all those extra buttons that come with clothes. It’s such a waste to throw them out. I need to paint a cool tin to put all of them in it. If I could just find them all in all the drawers of the house!
50% is a great deal! I don’t buy anything unless it’s on sale. A frugal “Ima Button Freak!”
Summer
December 21, 2008 at 5:17 pmI agree with you, EmmaJ and Tari. Part of it is the tactile experience of combing through my Grandma’s tin of buttons when I was small… there is something wonderful about still being able to play with your collection.
I also love the versatility. Jewelry? Clothing? Paper project? Inspiration?
Who doesn’t love buttons? 🙂
Tari of claybuttons
December 21, 2008 at 5:33 pmSummer, we are all tactile creatures. I walk through stores touching everything. If it looks interesting, I’ve gotta touch it.
Love your statement “Who doesn’t love buttons? :)”
Ima Button Freak unite!!
Anonymous
December 21, 2008 at 5:56 pmNo I am not a button freak but I am a delica seed bead freak. Does that count?
Valerie C
December 21, 2008 at 5:58 pmNo I am not a button freak but I am a Delica seed bead freak. Does that count?
Tari of claybuttons
December 21, 2008 at 6:03 pmValerie, I’ll let it count today.
You might want to go to beadfreak.com, I’m sure they will welcome you with open arms 🙂
Deborah
December 21, 2008 at 9:00 pmTari, I adore both buttons AND Celtic stuff (I'm English, Irish, and Native American) – your beautiful knot buttons are right up my alley! Like many button FREAKS, I have a large "stash" that goes back a few generations. One of my grandmothers (my father's mother) was a professional seamstress, working at a large textile mill in Tennessee. I well remember my childhood visits there – the walls of colorful fabric, thread, buttons and trim were like an art gallery! Both my mother and her mother (my other grandmother) also were excellent seamstresses who made most of the clothes worn by their daughters. My mother was one of twin daughters and had three daughters of her own – that's a LOT of fashion to form! Both my grandmothers and Mom also made aprons, kitchen linens, tablecloths & napkins, curtains & decorative accessories for the house, and MANY quilts. I grew up completely surrounded and inundated by the wonderful world of machine sewing, hand-sewing, quilting, embroidery, crocheting, knitting – textile arts that took many forms. Following in these ladies' footsteps, I also became a competent seamstress, making clothes for myself (and my two sisters) and earned some extra cash during my high school years sewing for others, as well. My mother and I loved to shop for fabric and buttons (and all the accoutrements). My grandmothers and mother have passed on now, and I inherited their "stashes." My prized button collection has been in many configurations from "the BIG button jar" to numerous smaller jars, tins, envelopes, etc. Recently, I had the time to go through ALL of them – what a wondrous host of memories all those buttons brought back! For whatever reason, I decided these buttons needed to be "organized" and spent hours sorting them into categories and sub-categories. Although it's easier to find a certain button or group of buttons now, I'm sorely tempted to just dump them all back into that single jar and let them get tumbled and tossed and "lost" together – no amount of sorting or organization can compare with the mystery and wonder of "the BIG button jar…
Tari of claybuttons
December 21, 2008 at 9:58 pmDeborah, what a fantastic story and history you have with your buttons!
You could have some priceless buttons in your stash. I went to a button show once…it was another world. I had to have someone explain it all to me. I saw a $250 button!!! I was astonished! They have trays and competitions. It was like a button cult…amazing and very interesting.
You rank up there as “Ima Button Freak”
Deborah
December 22, 2008 at 10:36 amThanks, Tari, I’m honored to be placed high on the “Ima Button Freak” scale. I’ve never been to a button show – didn’t even know there was such a thing! I can’t imagine how SERIOUS they must be about THEIR buttons – $250, I hope, included some precious stones on that one example. I’d be astonished, too. Picturing the trays and competitions you mention brought a silly image to my mind: individual buttons being “led” out of their little button tray/stalls to race atop gleaming glass display cases, owners screaming and encouraging them on… the pageantry… the excitement… the winner’s circle…
I confess it’s 2:30 a.m. and I’ve been Christmas wrapping for hours – beginning to hallucinate, I guess. Ha! Thanks again for considering me a worthy “Ima Button Freak.” If I win your Celtic Knot Buttons, I can assure you they’ll have a good home – one that stops a little short of being “cult-ish.”
Tari of claybuttons
December 22, 2008 at 2:51 pmLOL Deborah! Still up at 2:30 am wrapping. Now that’s dedication!
Kiwiken
December 23, 2008 at 8:20 amOooh, beautiful buttons!
Doesn’t everyone have a big jar of old and leftover buttons in their house? And didn’t everyone enjoy playing with them as a child? I certainly did. Recently, we visited my boyfriends parents, and they also had such a jar… of course, I had to have a look inside, and when I opened it, there was this smell that brought back a load of childhood memories. Don’t know what exactly the smell is, but it smelled like *buttons* – and I’m sure all you button freaks know that scent, too 😉
It smelled just like my mothers button jar – and crazy as it is, that made me feel at home 🙂
Tari of claybuttons
December 23, 2008 at 3:01 pmKiwiken, I think you’re right. Everyone has button jar or tin around. My daughter is already saying she wants some of my buttons for her daughter. I didn’t think about that. I have tons of buttons!!!