Oh, So Very Margaret

Want to get to know me? This project reveals a lot.

Over the last weeks ... (months) ... I've been sorting and categorizing my button collection. My maternal great grandmother and grandmother were professional seamstresses. When Grandma died, everything went to her only child, my mom. When Mom died, I inherited Mom's sewing and craft supplies. She still had some of her mom's and grandmother's collection. Last year when my mother-in-law died, I inherited her sewing supplies, too.

Among the supplies were buttons. Buttons and buttons and buttons and buttons and buttons. 

Plus, I have a stash of my own buttons. I have a habit of going to thrift stores and digging through the craft and sewing section, and bringing home beautiful or unusual buttons. 

Some have threatened to call this an illness.

Over the last ... some time ... (years, really), I've sorted buttons. But when my mother-in-law's stash was added, the collection needed a bigger overhaul. 

I sorted by color, by size, by number of holes, by shank. Then I converted this large metal box that used to hold garage-type hardware into a container for my buttons. This is about 15" tall x 10' wide x 6" deep.

I divided up the drawers. I added labels. I admired my handiwork.

My original thought was that I'd put the loose buttons in the smaller drawers, and the buttons that were still on cards in the bottom two drawers. But, uh, I forgot how many buttons I have on cards.

So the next logical thing was to sew matching buttons onto index cards, right? So more sorting commenced as I gathered matching buttons. I finally had to limit the sewing-onto-cards to four or more matching buttons. There were just too many sets of two and three.

So not only do I have my beautifully sorted and labeled drawers of buttons arranged into rainbow order, I also now have a big box full of buttons sewed or stapled onto index cards beautifully sorted and labeled and arranged into rainbow order in an oversized shoebox.

And no, I didn't count them.

Look at all my pretty blues!

Most of my buttons are modern, plastic, and round. In the coming days I'll share some of the more unusual buttons in the collection.

Among themselves, crafters joke that purchasing supplies is as much of a hobby as the crafting itself.

I'd like to amend that thought. For nutcases like me, petting and organizing craft supplies is just as valid a hobby. It's like shopping your own stash and getting the creative juices flowing again.

I do hope that my creative dry spell dissipates soon. I'd love to utilize some of these buttons and share the resulting creations with the world.