Window Lane: Vintage Buttons for Crochet

The Old Button Box

I inherited 'The Button Box' when my Mum passed on.

The old button box

Vintage Buttons

This is a treasure of wonderful buttons dating back beyond 70 years. There are lots of very old shirt buttons, ivory looking, now paper thin. There are buttons from my Dad's RAAF airforce uniform, and buttons from old cardigans that my Mum would have worn, and buttons from the clothes we children wore after they had seen the end of their life. Nothing was thrown away.

Buttons over 70 years old

Button Material through the Ages

Old buttons were made of celluloid, bakelite, lucite, vegetable ivory and metal, glass, china, mother of pearl, enamel, wood and casein.

Oh, the stories they could tell, the bodies they have helped keep warm, the places they have been.

I recycle these beautiful buttons to finish off the little crocheted jumpers, jackets and beanies that I make for toddlers.

All about vintage buttons

Broken Buttons

Buttons are tough, and they last a long time. It is rare to see broken buttons. When I was going through the button box the other day, I washed some and sorted them into new groups. There were only four broken ones out of a couple of hundred buttons.

What stories they could tell. What beauty in these old buttons.