Button jar envy - how/where can I get one?

[PrincessOfWails]

My Mum has an enormous collection - from her birth mother, her own mother, and her aunt - plus her own!
If I went and got me a button jar would it be the same?

[ninedragons]

Get her to seed you a collection. No cherry-picking, though, you just have to take a handful and accept what the button fairies give you. You can buy button jars on eBay by weight.

Actually I started mine with a jar from a flea market. I add to it quite obsessively. I am also hovering with intent over my great-grandmother's sewing cabinet but my mum won't part with it.

I can't actually sew at all. I just like the paraphernalia.

[craftynclothy]

I have a glass jar from Ikea. I add in any spare buttons I buy for various projects. There's also a shop near us that's like an aladdin's cave for old and dusty buttons (think it's 10p per card of buttons)

[PrincessOfWails]

Ah, ninedragons, that's just it, isn't it - the paraphernalia! I suddenly started coveting a button jar this morning as I sorted through my large collection of Gutermann threads... (e-bay, incidentally, job lot mixed colours!) I do sew, but not much these days; I also knit but usually buy buttons for anything which might need them!

So charity shops and the like, here I come!

I just checked out e-bay - loads of buttons, but many from the States. Weird.

[moominthecorner]

I have a big Sarsons Pickling Vinegar jar and a more glam Bonne Maman for my favourites so that DS1 can play with the main collection without causing me anguish! i inherited my original collection from Mumm but have done my bit to bolster it too!

[moominthecorner]

there's a photo here on my (very patchy) [http://stitch-this.net/2011/01/04/its-arrived/ blog]][

[moominthecorner]

and again with a proper link....blog

[Julierose]

I am also button mad, just love them!

Although I can't recommend where you'll find vintage button collections, I have just updated my blog and it features reviews of fab online button stores (at bargain prices too), it's sad - I know! See it here

julierose77.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/essential-online-shops-for-sewing-geeks/

[rockinhippy]

I've a button fetish too - stems from my childhood & my Nanas amazing sewing box & button jar :)

I've a huge tin that looks like a mini treasure trunk full of amazing buttons, some I inherited - I was lucky in that I used to get donations from button reps when I was working too, so I do have a great selection

• down side is, several friends know that I do, so when in need of buttons end up popping round & raiding my tin thankfully they don't live nearby any more - though one friend in particular is a bit handy at that & will drive to visit just for buttons though after a few words he now brings me odds & sods of buttons too -
  

& DD is 8 & already has her eye on it

I do use them though :)

[rockinhippy]

ooops forgot to answer you're question

agree junk shops can be good & asking friends etc to save you buttons from clothes being thrown out

so jealous of your 10p button cards shop crafty

[moominthecorner]

I'd love to be a button rep

[PrincessOfWails]

Oh, great moomin. So now I can add cotton reel display envy and DMC couture thread drawer envy to the list.

I have serious lust after some of those buttons on Julierose's blog! Maybe I should just, er, buy some new ones...

[AlmightyCitrus]

My mum has a really, really old tin, stuffed with buttons. I spent hours and hours playing with them when I was little.
DH knows I love "stuff" like this, and one day I got a parcel, and he'd bought me a big bag full from ebay. I think there was about 1000 buttons and it cost him about £5-£6.

I bought a cheap glass cookie jar to put them in, and they live on my fireplace, and look gorgeous!

[moominthecorner]

princess I'm sorry. Some people buy shoes, I buy thread drawers, what can I say I am addicted to searching eBay! Mind you, some people will pay insane amounts for vintage Sylko drawers, £hundreds!!!!!! mad!

almighty your DH sounds wonderful!

[bigTillyMint]

But aren't loads of non-matching buttons pretty useless?

[moominthecorner]

Noooooooo they're pretty! And you can colour match them, or make flower centres, or picTures, or button bracelets or.......excuse me, I have to go lie down....

[rockinhippy]

mine aren't non matching I'm sure others aren't either you usually pick them up in sets - I can find full sets & more for whatever I need in my tin

besides, even if they were, for some projects none matching buttons of the same size can look great :)

I have old sweet jars in similar colours for my sewing reels moomin I like that I can see at a glance what I need - love your drawers too though :) - wonders if maybe I should have married a button rep - lol

I have a reel rack for bobbins too (am I just showing off now

[supadupapupascupa]

I bought 2 antique tins full from ebay. (about £15 each I think)

They have been sorted into sets and the odd ones have been put into display jars by colour [nutter emoticon]

[rockinhippy]

button porn :)

[nickelbabe]

You need a Big tin - you can get them from Coleman's or Bisto (to hold the gravy), or even a Christmas Chocolate Tin will be fine for now.

Agree with ninedragons to get your mum to start you off.

Everytime you get new clothes, put the spare button in the tin.
everytime you have clothes that are too tatty to send to the charity shop, take off the buttons.
Have a look in charity shops for sets of buttons.
Jumble sales for crap clothes with fab buttons.
etc etc

[moominthecorner]

I forgot, I've also got a wooden box that my mum painted with flowers on it and I use it to store all my buttons on cards ie the matching ones. God, rereading this thread we are perhaps a little bit eccentric let's say but i say the buttons deserve the attention. It's a cheaper vice than drugs.

[moominthecorner]

rockin fab site. Must. Get. 9.hole. Buttons.

[coldcomfortHeart]

Wow, lots of button fanatics out there!
OP I was paying for something at the counter of my local (excellent) Red Cross shop and a lady came in and asked to look at their button jar. They went into the back and pulled out two gigantic containers- so it is worth actually asking the staff as there's a chance they could have some but not have them out on display. Good luck!

[CointreauVersial]

I have never quite understood the obsession, but then I was brought up around haberdashery, my mum being a fashion designer and dressmaker. She has a studio stuffed with all sorts. Drawers full of ribbons, trims, thread in every shade and, yes, buttons.

My own button jar has just built up by itself over the years - I have never actually gone out and bought buttons for it, but always save spares supplied on new clothes and unused buttons from craft/dressmaking. I use them too! Anytime I lose a button I can guarantee I'll have something suitable in the jar. Wouldn't think to have it on display or sift through it, though.

[PrincessOfWails]

My button jar has to be my own - my mum has said no! (To be fair, there is vast sentimental value there - she played with one tin when she was a child - and so did I! - and the other tin is from her birth mother and she didn't know her birth mother...but that's a whole other story for another thread!!)

I have just bid on e-bay for a random selection, so will start from there. Might buy a mixed lot of pretty buttons or something. Ebay has loads - we are not alone, ladies!