WOW what a brilliant suggestion!!!
And if I prepared the cloth the kids would just LOVE this!!!
judith
Joined: 16 Dec 2004 Posts: 22789 Location: Montgomeryshire
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 05 10:10 am Post subject:
When I was a kid, my Mum's button box would keep me quiet for hours - I can still picture many of the buttons in there. In fact, I would probably just keep the box to run my fingers through and remember the past.
I have used my own button stash to make tab-top curtains and as the "quilting" in a couple of rough-and-ready, homespun quilts. You could also use them in collages or as part of a memory box, perhaps.
hils
Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 568 Location: Nottingham
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 05 10:19 am Post subject:
a friend of mine has just used buttons for part of her degree - one thing she has done is wire them all together to form a sort of sheet and then 'moulded' it into a light shade.
You could customise some plain jumpers. My friend has a plain grey knitted jumper and on one shoulder has sewn see thro and shell buttons in different length rows going down the jumper. Looks really funky.
Anyone want me to look up quantities and proper instructions? She's got an article on it in an old quilting magazine, I was reading through it this morning.
hils
Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 568 Location: Nottingham
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 05 10:26 am Post subject:
yes please cab - I've been trying to find a kit to do this for ages with no luck.
can you use them to make a collage, using them to denote middle of flowers or wheels and embroider round them. Something you could then frame to be able to remember your mum by.
I use to have a box of buttons and beads but it was a playground craze to swap them all the time. I was about 9 I think.
sally_in_wales Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Posts: 20809 Location: sunny wales
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 05 3:34 pm Post subject:
I'm making this idea up as I go along so it might not work-but what about making a long sort of decorative cloth streamer with buttons all over it to hang near the phone or in the kitchen, then you could button pieces of paper with notes to it- sort of an alternative notice board? If you made lots of labels with buttonholes on them out of that wipe clean tablecloth stuff you'd have write on wipe off notelets that you could unbutton and take with you if needed, shopping lists, appointments etc
otatop
Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Posts: 1425 Location: North London
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 05 4:29 pm Post subject:
When I was a child I occasionally had to stay with a Great Aunt who kept a sweet jar of assorted buttons - which I was allowed to sort and grade. It kept me busy for hours. I still have a sweet jar full of interesting buttons which kept my children quiet - perhaps if I ever have grandchildren....
Have seen a load of buttons knotted individually onto fishing line and each strand of these tacked to a wooden batten and hung at a window.
Bit like a beaded curtain only more stylish and the glass ones and see through ones look lovely with the light showing through them. Would look great in a teenagers room. Could make a lampshade to match too?
I have seen a bag made of ordinary material then covered with buttons. It was in a shop and cost a fortune. you just need all different sizes to cover it completely
Nanny
Joined: 17 Feb 2005 Posts: 4520 Location: carms in wales
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 05 7:12 pm Post subject: buttons
have you ever considered the virtues of becoming a pearly queen denise?
I'll see if I can get the the technique to work and tell you all about it. The info I have says that you need 60g of the former chemical and 30g of the latter, each dissolved in 250ml of distilled water, and you mix them in a dark-ish room.
Soak the fabric in this, squeeze it out and dry it in the dark. Seal it in a light proof box.
For exposure, put it out on a solid surface, put soemthing on top of it that'll have a nice pattern, and carry it into the sunlight for at least ten minutes. It'll turn grey-ish where the sun hits it, that's when it's getting to be done.
Keep washing it till the water runs clear.
To enhance the colour, wash it in 1/2 tsp hydrogen peroxide in a couple of litres of water.