I have just "inherited" my mother's button tin

[SoupDragon]

[happy sigh]

I say "inherited" but she is alive and well :o

I am rummaging through it looking for the old favourites that were there when I was a child...

Savoy - read that through my fingers with a fast beating heart. The poor woman - all brushed away?

Oooh my mum had a button tin, also a quality street tin! I am going to ask her if she still has it!

I keep thinking of starting my own but have been suprised how expensivw buttons can be to buy, even charity shops seems to know they are a 'thing' and mark the price up accordingly.

I agree that they can be used sparingly. And must be replaced in the tin if the garment is worn out or out grown :o

I think I use both button box and button tin.... hmm not sure now. Both sound right though. :o

I bought a job lot on Ebay once.
Possibly twice.
No more than three times. Definitely.

The house clearance place i go to often has tins in and I rattle them all to see if they are full of buttons. No luck yet but I have found some loot rummaging round in boxes of "old lady stuff"

Button porn
Tin it must be a tin - you can call it a box - but it must be a tin

Ha Soup - I too live near a charity house clearance warehouse - I'd never thought of looking for buttons there. This could get dangerous

I agree they are to be used, but always replaced - all buttons from worn out clothes go into my tin :)

I would LOVE some of THESE ancient ones though - sigh ...

oh no, I can't use any. Some of these are 60 years old! Their place is in the button box!

Dothraki, you aren't in a South London borough are you

What a relief - No Soup I'm in the frozen north

That's fine then - go rummage in that warehouse! :o

The south is pretty bloody frozen too. It is snowing lightly as I type. [sigh]

I must have looked like a loon the time I was rummaging in a just-brought-in-box pulling out little cards of buttons and lengths of lace trim whilst almost bouncing with excitement :o

Thanks Soup - but its too cold to leave the house but no snow. Might just rumage round the charity shops

Ooh, there's a house clearance stuff shop near me. I do rummage round charity shops but never thought of that.

Snowing here too (Hampshire).

Ooh-we so need a proper button tin. Haven't done anything with dcs grown out of clothes-would it be really bad to cut off the buttons for a tin starter rather than hand on the clothes? I would keep the fabric for a quilt that I am pretty sure I would never get around to making

Molehill - you are on the slippery slope

Some of my buttons are in a Mackintosh toffee tin and an Ovaltine tin from the 50s, embroidery threads are in a smallish robin embossed octagonal biscuit tin which I squealed when I saw it in a Christmas feature in Country Living. Cottons are in various biscuit tins from Peak Freens and Huntley & Palmers, Patchwork forms are in a jubilee shortbread tin and pins are in a variety of little pretty tins but the collection originally started in my father's tobacco tin. Tapestry threads... I think you get the idea!

BTW, keep the buttons on the card, it keeps their history and them together.

Finally, did anyone else's mother snip the buttons off redundant shirts and then string them together?

Dothraki - I am teetering on the brink . Maybe I'm creating a legacy? But I fear making clutter would be more accurate. Is it wrong to have a button box and then always buy buttons anyway? latte lady - my small collection of carded buttons has been wrecked by dd. I am just about over it!

I like to think of it as a legacy. Plus I have always liked collecting, but we have a small house and too much stuff already, buttons to add to a tin are about the most un-invasive (and inexpensive) form of collecting I can think of.

Finally, did anyone else's mother snip the buttons off redundant shirts and then string them together?

Oh yes. I do it too :o

It is most defintitely creating a legacy - imagine rummaging through the, by then, huge tin of buttons with your grand children and pointing out the ones that came from the baby clothes of mummy/daddy. it woud be a disgrace not to save them IMO.

[enabler]

Our buttons are only come from our own clothes.

My most treasured button is a ladybird button cut from my dressing gown when I was a little girl.

What a lovely thread

I have my late mum's button tin too, which also has my grandma's buttons. I remember them all from my childhood, I'd never realised how much of a memory they invoke. I also have a massive bag of zips

I used to love watching my mum cutting out a pattern on the floor, with pins in the corner of her mouth. She had 'special' scissors which we were not allowed to use (I wish they had been in her sewing box which I also have). There would always be a few stray pins left on the floor!

Then she'd magically transform it all into an outfit or cuddly you. I have her sewing machine too, just the smell of it reminds me of her

Soup - Button Hoarder Enabler - yes my mum cut off buttons. Like many of you I am sure - I have some lovely large 50's and 60's buttons. I put one on a primark cardigan attaching it with a ribbon - it looks lovely

My mum has a button tin - it is an oblong, cadburys tin, iirc - in fact, I saw a tin just like it on ebay recently, and was sooo tempted to buy it, but resisted, because I hope I will inherit mum's tin some day. Dh will be horrified, but I don't care!

I do have a button tin of my own, but I cheated - I bought it off ebay, and I bought some bags of second hand buttons, and sorted out the ones I liked, to go in my tin. >