Hand made buttons

[Holly Berry]

I went on a short study course yesterday run by our local AE centre on making buttons.

The type we made were Dorset buttons. They are made by blanket stitching round a ring, in our case a plastic ring of the type used for roman blinds. The thread is then wound round at clock face positions, ie 12 to 6, 5 past to 25 to etc. Then the thread is stitched round the thread.

A good buttoner, back in the day, would have made 6 dozen a day and would have earned 3 shillings. They were then sold on a card for 1 shilling a dozen.

[Renegade Sewist]

Lovely. I took a class years ago too. The history of them and other buttons is fascinating actually. Dorset button manufacture, a home based industry, was a major source of income back in the day. That 3 shillings per day was a fair bit more than the farm wage of about 9p per day. When mechanization and then stamp presses were created for mass produced buttons the collapse of the Dorset button making helped fuel the mass emigrations to Australia, Canada and here to the US.

At my pace I would have died of starvation at an early age.

Wikipedia has a nice little article on the Dorset button.

[Lowena]

I'd love to have a go at this...but..... supposing I could master it,what would I do with the buttons?? 

[BrendaP]

Interesting about the history of those buttons.

@Holly Berry how big were the rings you used?  I'm leading a workshop at craft club in a few weeks time making thread buttons.  I've got some samples of Yorkshire buttons already made (and used) but I want to include Dorsets as well.

[BrendaP]

I'd love to have a go at this...but..... supposing I could master it,what would I do with the buttons?? 

Sew them onto an existing garment.  My Yorkshire buttons are sewn down the front of a dress.  I'd miscalculated the width of the bodice and needed to put a pleat/tuck down the centre front.  Adding buttons made it look as though the pleat was always supposed to be there!  They also helped win me a coveted TSP badge
https://thesewingplace.org.uk/index.php/topic,3335.msg57945.html#msg57945

[Lowena]

I don't think I possess anything with buttons  Just fancied the idea 

[BrendaP]

Make two and sew them onto opposite sides of a cushion.  Use a BIG needle and strong thread so that you can pull tightly and get them squeezed together giving the cushion a nice shape.

[Holly Berry]

@Lowena here’s a link to the website mentioned on our course http://henrysbuttons.co.uk/worksheets-and-tutorials.html

@BrendaP the size we used were 2cm diameter (outer edge). There were different types of thread and wool yarn to experiment with, but the consensus was that for beginners crochet thread no 8 was the best.

[crafter]

Fascinating.

[Holly Berry]

I'd love to have a go at this...but..... supposing I could master it,what would I do with the buttons?? 

Go for it, even if you end up using one as your “signature” on quilts. I really enjoyed it.

[Lowena]

Great idea @Holly Berry  thanks..... I'm off to look for button rings

[Iminei]

My MIL and her very arty crafty friend came and house and cat sat for us when we were away on holiday many years ago.

When we came home, her friend had gone to a craft workshop locally and left me some exquisite blue and white dorset buttons she had made as a thank you (?)

How lovely of her was that ???

[BrendaP]

@Lowena here’s a link to the website mentioned on our course http://henrysbuttons.co.uk/worksheets-and-tutorials.html

@BrendaP the size we used were 2cm diameter (outer edge). There were different types of thread and wool yarn to experiment with, but the consensus was that for beginners crochet thread no 8 was the best.

Thank you for that info.

[Lachica]

Thanks. You've just identified the weird ring things I found in my mum's sewing box - and threw away. Yours are much neater & prettier.

[Ohsewsimple]

We did these at college.  I could never quite get the centre where it should have been  .  But had fun doing it.  Also did fabric covered and hand embroidered.   The less said about my hand embroidery the better.   But machine embroidered ones are nice.  Managed that quite well.  And also did woven ribbon and that was used to cover buttons.  That one I actually managed.