I have a jar in my craft room. It is special to me. It is filled with old buttons that my Grandma has collected over the years. Some are big and some are small. Some are old and obviously used, others look brand new and shiny. I have pulled out a button here and there for a craft project so it isn't as full as it once was. Waste not, want not...right? I was in a fabric store the other day and I saw a magazine with the cutest "softies" on the cover. (A softie is a doll or animal or whatever that is made from fabric and filled with soft stuffing.) I fell in love with them and decided to try to make them (the magazine was $15 and there were no patterns in it!) at home. The picture had the cutest buttons on the "softies" for one of the eyes and for the nose.
Well, what a perfect project for some stray buttons. But as soon as I started to sort through the buttons I was lost in nostalgia. I was a little girl again sitting in my Grandmother's blue sewing room. The warm sun was coming through the window and I was listening to the whir of her old sewing machine as she whipped up a dress for me from some fabric from her stash. I started to wonder where the buttons had come from. She had obviously cut some from clothing. Was it a shirt she had worn and when it out lived it's usefulness as a shirt.....did she cut it into squares for a crazy quilt. Did some of the tiny buttons come from clothing she made for my Mom, Aunts and Uncle when they were small?
Did she scan her pile of useful things and create something using only what she had in that magic sewing room? I like to think so. I like to think that I am a lot like her. I know my fabric stash will never be as varied as hers and the seams I sew are never as straight.....but I can go into my craft room and make something using the supplies on hand. As I use my imagination and stretch my creative muscles to create a pattern for these "softies" I can picture my nieces loving on them and I smile. If they get even half of the joy I get from a hand made gift from my Grandma, then it will be worth the effort.
I am still working on the finished product....there have been some "firsts" completed. When I get the final draft ready to go....I'll show you. Until then, do you have a stash? Do you love to feel that rush of creativity when you see a stack of fabric and a pile of old buttons? Maybe it's just me. I'm crazy that way.
Well, what a perfect project for some stray buttons. But as soon as I started to sort through the buttons I was lost in nostalgia. I was a little girl again sitting in my Grandmother's blue sewing room. The warm sun was coming through the window and I was listening to the whir of her old sewing machine as she whipped up a dress for me from some fabric from her stash. I started to wonder where the buttons had come from. She had obviously cut some from clothing. Was it a shirt she had worn and when it out lived it's usefulness as a shirt.....did she cut it into squares for a crazy quilt. Did some of the tiny buttons come from clothing she made for my Mom, Aunts and Uncle when they were small?
Did she scan her pile of useful things and create something using only what she had in that magic sewing room? I like to think so. I like to think that I am a lot like her. I know my fabric stash will never be as varied as hers and the seams I sew are never as straight.....but I can go into my craft room and make something using the supplies on hand. As I use my imagination and stretch my creative muscles to create a pattern for these "softies" I can picture my nieces loving on them and I smile. If they get even half of the joy I get from a hand made gift from my Grandma, then it will be worth the effort.
I am still working on the finished product....there have been some "firsts" completed. When I get the final draft ready to go....I'll show you. Until then, do you have a stash? Do you love to feel that rush of creativity when you see a stack of fabric and a pile of old buttons? Maybe it's just me. I'm crazy that way.
4 comments:
My grandmother had a huge jar (well maybe not huge but to me it seemed huge)of buttons that I used to love to run my hands down into.
How I wish I had that jar right now. I am having button envy.
Can't wait to see your "softie".
OMGOSH, how I love me the button Jar! I wish we would have looked through them while I was there! LOVE LOVE LOVE!
Awwww. I remember the blue room. I remember the little tv in there that Kim and I would turn on and off because it would have a circle and then it would disappear. I remember the prom dresses. There were two of them. I wanted so so so bad to wear them when I got to high school. I am so thankful that they were long gone by then ;c) Ha ha! Love the buttons! What a fun thing to have! Can't wait to see what you make!
I love memory triggers like this. How wonderful! Can't wait to see the creations you make!!
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