Why Buttons?
Why do we do the things we do? I mean, if you had told me 20 years ago I’d be making fabric covered buttons in my spare time, I’d have called you mad! But here we are. It’s 2021 and this is a website filled with Fabric Covered Buttons … made by me … for someone like you!!
So, how does a career focused Accountant, with two small kids, start & then continue making buttons? If you haven’t read Brooke’s Story the beginning is detailed there. In short, when everyone else was in bed (by 8pm), this Night Owl needed something fulfilling to do. I was too tired to process debits & credits & making buttons became a mindless but mindfulness activity I could get lost in but completely satisfied with at the same time.
When I look back now, I’ve always been crafty in some capacity. I loved dot-to-dot pictures & I loved to colour with my Derwent pencils. In primary school I won an award at the local Ouyen Show. All I can remember about that poster, was Orange Cardboard & glued on cotton balls. The prize however was my most prized possession at the time. It was a beautiful box full of paint tubes, brushes & special artists paper. You know the kind - thick but not cardboard, it had a grain in it similar to wood, and wasn’t the kind you drew circles on when your pen wasn’t working!
I’m a collector of things, or as my entire family would say (parents, brother, husband, kids), HOARDER!! I’ve collected stamps, erasers, book series - recently my cousins daughter borrowed my entire collection of “The Baby-Sitters Club” books - yep still got them. I’ve collected sea shells on holidays, bottles & cans for pocket money on holidays, postcards, fridge magnets, decks of cards & who doesn’t hoard some beautiful stationery?
Do you love fashion & clothes? I have a love/hate relationship. I love some, hate others. I love it when I see it, then hate it when I try it on. I love the feel of the fabrics & then I hate it when I try it on! I’m now a collector (hoarder) of beautiful fabrics. I even went as far as buying some when we went to Paris in 2019. My husband says it was the funniest conversation he’s ever seen between two people BUT I wasn’t leaving Paris (Montmarte) without some fabric. The thing is, I can’t sew. I did Textiles at school & was terrible at it. I was much better in the kitchen or the bench in woodworking.
So Why Buttons? The thing is, to make a button, all I need are my button shells, my button tools & some fabric. The possibilities are then endless. Big buttons, small buttons. Plain buttons, hair-ties, hair clips, fridge magnets, bookmarks, jewellery and so much more. Depending on the fabric, depending where you cut it, you can make several different buttons from the one piece. It’s not dull or boring. It’s fun & enjoyable! So maybe the clothes won’t fit & maybe you can’t sew, but you can make a button & it fits every time. And if the fit isn’t quite right, we’ll attach that button to something else so it’s just the way you want it.