FaveCrafts

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Ask Maria “How to Store Buttons!”

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Question

What’s the best way to store my buttons? I must have hundreds of them for my crafting and sewing.

Lisa via FaveCrafts Radio Chatroom

Collectors often sort and store by age, color, and or shape. Most of us who have a button stash like to see what we have so buttons are stored in clear see-though containers. You want to keep your buttons out of direct sunlight and away from extreme heat. You can use zip lock bags, glass jars, clear containers  and cleaned medicine bottles if you use them on a regular basis. Again sorting by color, size, and shape makes it easy to find the button you need for a project.

Big buttons from Blumenthal Lansing make a statement.

My friends also store buttons in decorative tins, hat boxes, and even an old library card file. Use your imagination. For a few years I stored my buttons in pretty vases on display in my living room. Storing in air tight containers helps prevent dust build up, but if you need to clean your buttons clean them with the appropriate cleaner for the material they are made out of for example plastic, bone, and porcelain buttons can be cleaned with mild soap and water, then buff dry.

Maria Nerius, Resident Craft Expert for FaveCrafts.com has quite the button stash thanks to family and friends! Do you have a stash of buttons too?

Product Review and Giveaway: Button Jewelry Kit

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button{ware} Kits
Button jewelry-making kit
Indygo Junction and JHB Buttons
Product Review by Maria Nerius

buttonware-kit

I like crafting with kits. All the supplies are in the same package, add scissors and glue and you are ready to go.  This product line includes many different jewelry-making kits that make necklaces, chokers, pendants, bracelets, and pins. There are a variety of colors and tones from bright bolds to soft earthtones. All you need is the basic skills of jewelry making (one kit is crochet).  Extra supplies needed vary kit to kit, but usually it’s a pair of wire cutters and adhesive.  The jewelry is playful, sophisticated, and with enough variety to coordinate with any wardrobe. It’s wearable art made easy.  My favorite kit was Charmingly Graceful Bracelet with its soft pinks and hearts, but I also adored the Colorful Link Bracelet with its bold sassy colors.  Learn how to make button jewelry through these kits! Kits are beginner level and I think great for kids as long as an adult is there to supervise. There is also a button{ware} book available that has lots of great button jewelry projects.

Testing Feedback

  • Excellent taste and style to the jewelry project.
  • Cool packaging that made you want to check it out.
  • Quality findings included in the kit.
  • Clear packaging, you could easily read what you needed to complete the project.
  • Buttons are fun and very interesting to see as jewelry.

WIN THE BUTTON JEWELRY MAKING KIT !

We are giving away one button jewelry making kit to a lucky reader. Just post a comment on this blog and you’ll automatically be entered to win. The deadline to enter is April 24, 2009 at 5 pm CST. We’ll send an email to the winner so please check to make sure your email is correct. You’ll get an extra entry for EACH of the following (if you comment and do all four things, you’ll be entered FOUR times):

  1. If you blog about this giveaway at your blog, we’ll give you an extra entry. Contact us with a link to the blog post.
  2. If you twitter about this giveaway, you’ll get an extra entry. Again, contact us with a link to the tweet.
  3. If you add a link to us on your blogroll or website, we’ll give you an extra entry. Again, contact us!

Craft Giveaway Summary

Prize: 1 button{ware} Button jewelry-making kit by Indygo Junction and JHB Buttons

Deadline: April 24, 2009 5pm CST

*U.S. and Canada residents only. Winners must claim prize within 14 days of being announced.*

Good luck!
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How to Sew on a Button

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Yesterday, Linda LaSala of Girlawhirl contributed a few ideas at FaveCrafts for updating old clothes with brand new touches to give them life. One of the ideas was adding new buttons to a cashmere sweater.

Cashmere Sweater Before

Cashmere Sweater Before

Cashmere Sweater with New Buttons

Cashmere Sweater with New Buttons

Fabulous no? With this idea in mind, I thought that some of our readers might appreciate a basic tutorial on how to sew on a button. Even if you know how to sew, perhaps you might like to see our version of how to make a strong, reinforced button. There might be a few tips in here you find useful.

  1. Select thread that will match your button. Cut off at least 5 inches of thread with sharp scissors. You want a straight cut.
  2. Thread your needle by inserting the thread through the eye of the needle. Licking the thread makes this easier. To reduce the number of times you have to thread the holes in the button, double thread your needle. To double the thread, simply pull the thread through the eye of the needle until you have equal lengths of thread extending from both sides. You can repeat this with another thread for a super-strong quadruple-thread.
  3. Tie the ends of the thread together for a beginning knot. If you did not double the thread, tie a knot at the end of the thread.
  4. Align the button on the fabric. Make sure it lines up with the button hole on the other panel. If a button was on the garment previously, use the old button holes as a guide.
  5. Push the needle through the fabric up from the button through one hole in the button and slowly pull to the knot.
  6. Before you start stitching across the button, place a needle, pin, or toothpick across the button and hold it there while you make the first stitches. Removing this pin when finished creates the necessary space between the button and the garment so that it can be buttoned.
  7. To match the other buttons on the garment with 4-hole buttons, check whether the stitches are crossed or parallel. For parallel lines, push the needle down through a hole next to the first hole. For crossed X lines, push the needle down through the hole diagonal.  For a 2-hole button, you only have one choice!
  8. Bring the needle up through a new hole in a 4-hole button, or the first hole in a 2-hole button.
  9. Repeat the process until the button is secure, making sure the stitches are equally made. Remember, you have to do this less times with a double or quadruple thread.
  10. On the last stitch, push the needle through the material, but not through a button hole, in the area between the fabric and the button. Pull the thread through.
  11. Remove the pin or needle and pull up gently on the button to give you some space.
  12. To reinforce the thread between the button and the fabric, take the needle and wrap it around the thread five or six times.
  13. Push the needle back down through the fabric.
  14. To secure the thread, backstitch a couple times. Stick the needle into the fabric near the knot, push the needle over a quarter inch to the left and bring it back up, pulling taut. At the left end of your stitch, repeat this process. Do this a few times. You can also make these stitches at the beginning before sewing on your button.
  15. Cut off any excess thread and you are done!

How to sew a button

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I thought I’d go along with the theme Mindy started today and make my tutorial about sewing as well.  Now, many of us had to sit through excruciating Home Ec classes (or as our P.C. high school called it “Family Arts and Consumer Sciences”) but that feels like ages ago and frankly, I could use a refresher course.  I’ve also decided to take up sewing again (in the simplest of forms) and last night I busted out my trusty sewing machine for the first time in over a year to alter some vintage dresses I had lying around. It was fun but I was a bit rusty (a total understatement) so for my sake and yours, here’s a quick lesson on button sewing!

Button Sewing!

  1. Select a button and thread color that best matches the fabric you are working with (and other buttons on the garment if you’re just replacing a missing button).
  2. Cut the thread into a length about as long as the distance from a finger to your elbow, or about 1/2 yard.
  3. Feed thread through the eyehole at the top of a needle.  Pull thread through until the needle is in the middle of the thread’s length.
  4. Fold the thread in half and tie a knot at the ends where they meet.  Double the knot so it is secure.
  5. Place button where you intend to sew it onto the material.
  6. Moving underneath the material, push the needle through and into one of the holes on the button and pull all the way through until the thread’s knot stops you from pulling any further.
  7. Push the needle down through the next hole in the button and through the material.
  8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 about 3 times until all the holes on the button are secured down with numerous strands of thread.
  9. Push needle through the button and material one last time, ending underneath the fabric.  Tie off thread with a knot.  Double knot.
  10. Cut off excess thread. You’re all done!

How to Sew A Button

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Jewelry

Knitting

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Sewing

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