topic Re: Button Box in Home

Button Box

Neetgal2 — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 02:19:20 GMT

Anyone have an inherited button box? I went in mine yesterday for a few buttons to put on top of a craft project. Many of the buttons came from garments we bought, as the extra one. Some were from left over projects my Mom or I made. This is the interesting part, to me, my Mom and maybe my Grandmom would cut buttons off worn out clothes. My Mom always wanted to have a button if my Dad lost a shirt button. Some buttons were cut off to make "cleaning" rags! I do remember doing this for my Mom.

Any interesting stories of button boxes?

Re: Button Box

Oznell — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 02:22:04 GMT

I don't have any good button box stories of my own, @Neetgal2 , but I enjoyed hearing yours. Buttons are so varied and interesting, and are almost like small keepsakes that can bring back so many memories....

Re: Button Box

Desert Lily — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 02:26:26 GMT

When my late husband was in jr. h.s., he made a sewing box that opens with hinges to different levels. I still use it & will someday give it to my child.

My button box is a Whitman's candy tin that my grandfather gave to my grandmother when he courted her. I've kept special extra buttons & exceptional buttons I've cut from tossed clothes for years. My grandmother was an excellent seamstress.

Re: Button Box

SaveTheTurtles — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 02:24:25 GMT

@Neetgal2 @YES! I have a huge button jar from my late MIL. It's a treasure trove of options.

Re: Button Box

Icegoddess — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 02:54:29 GMT

My mother was a seamstress and I came home with lots of buttons when we cleaned out the house after my parents died. Lots. And being the OCD person that I am, I went through and organized them. I do have one jar with a vaiety of buttons. All the others are sorted.

I didn't get any Whitman candy tins, but I did get the obligatory cigar box.

Re: Button Box

ECBG — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 03:01:16 GMT

I have a big button box from when I cut off buttons to replace them.

Re: Button Box

Jk9 — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 03:53:49 GMT

I have a big glass "button jar" that my mother had. I've added extra buttons to it over the years. I too remember my mother, grandmother and aunts cutting off buttons when discarding garments. One of my aunts was a gifted seamstress and could always use extra buttons. I keep the jar for the memories now.

Re: Button Box

speedy girl — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 03:54:01 GMT

Not very interesting but I did inherit my Mom's button jar. It's a big ole peanut butter jar that she filled to the brim! I treasure it, as it has so many memories!

Re: Button Box

akaburtonfan — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 04:15:13 GMT

@speedy girl I also inherited my mother's button jar -- it's a small jelly jar. . When I was a young it was in an old Tang apothecary jar. I used to love to dump it out and look at all the pretty buttons.

Re: Button Box

Carmie — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 04:30:58 GMT

I didn't inherit a button box, but I have been collecting and saving buttons since I was a little girl.

I buy them when I see something unique. I save them when I get extras with a garment and cut the buttons off old clothing before I toss.

Sometimes, if I buy something but don't care for the buttons, I replace them.

My button box is a gold aluminum cookie can.

I learned to sew a button on when I was around four or five years old. I replaced the top button of my pink and white checked terry robe. The original was white, but the replacement was black. It was the only one I could find in the size I needed. I was so proud of my work.

My mother taught me how to thread a needle and sew a button on. Great flashback memory.

Re: Button Box

KathyM23 — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 05:25:53 GMT

I don't have a button box or jar or any old sentimental buttons, but I do have 2 Glad Gallon zip bags full of buttons, most from extra buttons, maybe a few I saw in a store that I thought I might use but never did. Don't know how I accumulated as many as I have.

But I am in a decluttering stage (see our Declutter 2023: what have you purged today) thread and I am going to delutter both of those bags. The first one I filled is in a cabinet over the fridge and the latest one in the bottom section somewhere in my hutch. After the Holidays I'm going to get them out and 90% (or maybe all) of those buttons are going to go. I'll keep the extra buttons that came with something I purchased recently. The rest are probably from clothes I no longer even own.

Re: Button Box

Zoe — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 05:43:58 GMT

I inherited my grandmother's button jar. She worked as a seamstress for over 50 years. There are buttons in there from her work, others from crafts she made. Some of them I can picture vividly from outfits she or my grandfather wore. Others I have no reference for and/or they didn't catch my interest. Over the years, I have had to cull down that collection to the most precious and most interesting.

When I ventured out on my own, I made a habit of saving buttons from the most monumental outfits -- often from those extra buttons that come with the outfit. In that jar went a button from my first interview suit after I graduated college, a button from the shirt I wore when I moved into my first apartment on my own, buttons from the suits I wore anytime I got a promotion or anytime I left a significant project or job. Then, I began to add in sentimental buttons like ones from the dresses I wore to the religious ceremonies of my godchildren, one from the sweater I wore on a silly weekday rendez-vous from my BFF, another from the night I met my better half...and on and on it goes.

The button jar has been one of the sentimental areas I have struggled to purge. Sometimes I hope my practical side will win out. Other times, I imagine moving with it into retirement, clutching it in my arm.

Great memory. Thank you for this discussion, @Neetgal2

ETA: our commingled button jar is a gallon glass jar with a screw-on top. Love being able to shake it and see which bubble to the sides or top.

Re: Button Box

Pook — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 08:27:26 GMT

I have my mother's tin of buttons that included my grandmother's buttons. Both were great seamstresses. I played with them as a kid. I even look through them and the different buttons often.

Re: Button Box

meallen616 — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 10:37:13 GMT

Such nice memories with the button box from my Mom...

Re: Button Box

jlkz — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 13:25:54 GMT

I used to have metal can with a lid where all buttons went. Then when I had to replace a button on DH's clothes, I would have to go through the whole can.....

Finally found a use for those tiny / small plastic bags that had a locking seal ! Created separate color piles and sealed them in their own see through bag. The hard part was differentiating all the shades of the same color, e.g., buttons from white shirts ran the gamut from pure white to almost khaki !

Since DH is almost totally color blind, I had to mark the name of the color on each bag. ( The worst argument we ever had was early on when I was printing the color name on his office shirts: Maize or Yellow ? )

Re: Button Box

wagirl — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 17:05:04 GMT

I have a button coffee can of old buttons from my MIL--mostly they are white but are made from mother of pearl--all sizes and thicknesses. She was not a seamstress but could sew on butons as well as snip them off I would love to use them to make some fancy arts and crafts holiday decor I see on Pinterest tho.

Re: Button Box

Marsha2003 — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 17:32:43 GMT

I don't have a sentimental button box, but I do have a small leather box where I keep any extra buttons that come with clothes. I remember that Marie Kondo said to throw away extra buttons. I disagree.

Re: Button Box

cheriere — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 18:38:24 GMT

@Marsha2003 wrote:
I don't have a sentimental button box, but I do have a small leather box where I keep any extra buttons that come with clothes. I remember that Marie Kondo said to throw away extra buttons. I disagree.

@Marsha2003 I agree, never throw away buttons. My mother still has her buttons stored in an old cookie tin, so there's quite a lot. I have a wooden jewelry box I received for Christmas as a child that I only use for storing extra buttons.

Re: Button Box

RedTop — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 19:08:14 GMT

I hope to find some good memories in my mothers button tin, which was gifted to us with a fruitcake inside in the early 60's.

At one time, the tin held large off white buttons off my maternal great grandmothers winter coat, buttons from mom's camel colored coat, red strawberry shaped buttons off my pajamas when I was about 4, and a pretty blue button from an Easter coat of mine when I was 5, along with a wide variety of other buttons of various size and colors.

Re: Button Box

Mom2Dogs — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 20:29:34 GMT

I have lots of old buttons, some were moms, some I have collected over the years...new (old ones) still on the card with the price, others were collected when retailers gave extra buttons on new garments.

I have them separated by color and store them in old mason jars.

I use them for craft projects.