When we were little I remember spending hours sitting on the floor of my Grandmothers sewing room sorting out her tins of buttons.
Kept in old biscuit and sweets tins we couldn’t open the tight lids ourselves but Nan would open them and while she sewed, we sorted.
By size, by colour, by pattern, by type of button (shank, number of holes). Hours and hours and days and days of sorting buttons.
We could match them with the fabrics that were being sewn or help hunt for an extra one when an outfit required more buttons. I am sure the buttons were used to help keep us occupied and quiet while she sewed, but it left me with a sense that all the details in the sewing mattered.
I still love sorting through my buttons finding the right ones for the project at hand. In fact I think I might plan a few new projects that use buttons instead of zips.
