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What can I do with buttons?
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@Calli



Joined: 03 Jul 2005
Posts: 1682
Location: Galway
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 10:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 10:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 10:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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.

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 10:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 10:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

yes please cab - I've been trying to find a kit to do this for ages with no luck.

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 10:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Right ho, I'll dig it out later. I'll see if I can source the chemicals too.

boff



Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 354
Location: Still alive and kicking
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 11:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

cab wrote:
At one time copies of building designs were produced using this stuff, hence the term 'blueprint'.


Cab,

You really are a mine of information.......

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

boff wrote:
cab wrote:
At one time copies of building designs were produced using this stuff, hence the term 'blueprint'.


Cab,

You really are a mine of information.......


More normally I've heard the same line with 'useless' in it somewhere

Mrs Fiddlesticks



Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 1:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 3:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 4:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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....

Naomi



Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 1945

PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 05 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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?

snootycat



Joined: 17 May 2005
Posts: 9

PostPosted: Sun Jul 31, 05 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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
PostPosted: Sun Jul 31, 05 7:12 pm    Post subject: buttons Reply with quote
    

have you ever considered the virtues of becoming a pearly queen denise?

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Sun Aug 07, 05 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

You can get the chemicals I was referring to (Ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide) here:

https://www.silverprint.co.uk/

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.

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