The Button Tin

this is a post that has been rolling around in the back of my mind and has almost been part of a couple of previous posts where buttons for eyes or other little additions were mentioned, yet it always felt like it should have its own post.

The button tin or jar is a bit like the sewing equivalent of sour dough for me. A living thing that you both take from and feed to keep it going.  A really good one is generational and evolves. It is a starting point  for many things and a repository of memories.

The contents, a combination of buttons removed from worn out clothing, the spare buttons that come with new items but were never needed, those bought new but not needed and buttons from jumble sale items bought for pennies and just for the buttons.  And in my case, inherited from my grandmother, aunt and combined with my mothers.

Oh and as suggested by the title, in my family the container is traditionally a tin, a biscuit tin. Not that somewhat iconic Danish biscuit tin so oft used for sewing notions. So the collection needs two tins due to it growing.

This is tin one, the tin my mother left home with, with a starter of contents from my grandmothers tin (or maybe it was my grandfather's, I recall he did more of the sewing ).

It is very pretty don't you think?

For a long time this was the button tin in my life, as a child it was a rainy day toy, parades of buttons, mosaic patterns on the floor, oddly I never did string them as I see others doing on TV shows, in films or read about.

For a time it was partnered with a big jar that white buttons went into.

Buttons went into the jar or tin, left , some did both more than once. 

A recent Christmas gift resulted in the retirement of the jar and a second button tin.  I think it is also vey decorative but makes no secret of its original purpose. 

There was also a bit of stringing, not sadly as a necklace or a counting aid, I am a bit too old for that now, but gathering together sets of matching buttons to make button hunting easier.

My recent SAl project with my BFF brought the subject of the button tin to the fore and my BFF shocked me that she does not have a button tin! She has a few buttons, here and there but no dedicated tin! Stunned, we talked about it and laughed over the oft seen Danish cookie tin meme and I discovered she is rather partial to them.  All these years as friends and still things to discover. So as she likes those biscuits, double win say I put it on your Christmas list.  However she is not locked to the tin idea and feels utilising one of her many pretty boxes would be more her thing.  Maybe after her house move.

Buying things at jumble sales just for the buttons is a thing of the past, so my tins are fed less often than they used to be, occasionally a trip to the charity shop  looking for something not in my tin means buying a job lot and adds to the contents.  Mind some boutique style charity shops display the buttons prettily then charge as much as if not more for them as buying new.

I do hope that my tins will continue to be living things full of memories and inspiration.