Uh… that would be me. I probably have more buttons than anyone in town, but still I’m drawn to them when I see some. I also RARELY have to go to town to buy any… because I usually can find what I need in my stash when I’m making most of my doll outfits. :o)
Well, today we were coming home from getting a chip fixed in the Rav’s windshield and my hubby had to get his truck’s back windshield re-glued where it was coming loose…
Now that wasn’t anything exciting, but on the way home we stopped at a yard sale and found some treasures. I’ll maybe share later what else I found. But today it’s all about the buttons…
I found a tin full of vintage buttons and the lady wanted ONE DOLLAR for it! Then I found a plastic ice cream pail about half full with mother of pearl buttons… it was ONE DOLLAR too…
Big spender that I was… I took them both! :o)
You never know what you might find in a button tin. After dinner, I started looking through the tin and was pleased!! I thought I’d share some of my favorites with you…
This was the gallon bag of the buttons that were too big, too plastic, or too ugly… I’ll take them to my thrift shop when I get all the buttons sorted…
Here is the lid filled with some of the treasures I’ve found so far…
I wanted to show you all these tiny glass buttons… they are all about 1/4″ in size…
I haven’t cleaned them yet and most of them are strung together on a piece of thread.
These are just slightly longer than 1/4″.
Here you can see just how small they all are…
There was a little silver 2″ tin inside the big tin… I shook it and told my hubby…kind of excited-like…”there’s something in here!”
I think they must be souvenir pieces she collected… not sure…
Well, now I have some New-Old buttons to add to my stash… hmmmm…wonder which ones I’ll use first?
I didn’t just go to a yard sale today… my brother surprised me and showed up in my driveway…we went to lunch down the road. After he left, we went to see Jean and Bithar’s new house. I had made her a double batch of corn casserole earlier.
I didn’t want you to think buying buttons and digging through them was all I did today! :o)
Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see you Monday! Thanks for all your kind compliments on Ten Ping’s outfit!!
Blessings, Jeanne
Wow! You really hit the jackpot today Jeanne! I am just drooling over all your lovely little buttons, especially the “square flower” ones and the “pink striped lozenge” ones. Those are my favorites.
(And I’ll bet I could match you, button for button, when it comes to quantity! After all, I’ve been around longer than you have, and sewing longer, too!! Hahaha!)
Those medals or medallions are pretty interesting. The one in the first picture is from a place in Vermont (I enlarged it and could read “VT FARM MCH [machine?] CO BELLOWS FALLS VT” across the bottom. It’s from 1900!
In the other picture of various medals, probably a train person would love that Union Pacific “lucky piece”; the square one might be a tax token, as it’s from Illinois’ “Dept. of finance”–Ron had some Wash. state tax tokens (though they were round). The Missouri one might be a tax token, too. A coin collector could tell you more, I’m sure. And the “gold medal” was apparently for a “US cream separator” (farm equipment). All really interesting stuff!
I need to do a little panic cleaning around here; some of the grands might stop by tomorrow evening (that is, Fri.–I haven’t been to bed yet, so it’s still Thursday to me! 😂)
Panic cleaning. I get it, Charlotte
Enjoy the grand kids
Thanks for the interesting information on some of Jeanne’s treasures
Alors ,j’ai l’impression de me voir à un retour de brocante..! C’est fantastique tout ce qu’on trouve dans une boite de boutons. Je ne suis pas capable de résister devant des boutons anciens . Je pense ,que je suis comme Charlotte ;je peux vous égaler…Je les collectionne depuis si longtemps . Je les lave dans de l’eau savonneuse . Les vôtres sont superbes et je suis sure que vous leur trouvez un bel usage. Bonne fin de semaine à vous toutes. Georgina.
Georgina, I have the family button collection. How I ended up with all the buttons from grandmothers and others, I don’t know, but they are here. 🙂
You are truly the champion thrift shop and yard sale shopper! You’ve done it again! I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to get rid of them if I’d found them. I wonder where some of them were manufactured? Such interesting designs and materials! Charlotte has had fun with them already! Thanks for sharing them with us.
Dear Jeanne, oh my goodness, you hit the button jackpot! There are so many and in so many lovely colors.
Can we really be half of the way through October? How does time move so quickly?
Wishing you and the Sofa Sisters a wonderful dolly-sewing-crafting-gardening-cooking-relaxing or whatever makes you happy weekend. Later today I will be off to take Afternoon Tea with my tea club.
Yesterday I went with my future daughter-in-law and her mother to a wonderful cafe. They were checking it out for a possible place to hold her bridal shower. People are coming from various areas in and around Houston so they were trying to find a place more centrally located rather than having everyone come out here which is a good distance for some. Anyway, while we were talking to the manager of the cafe he mentioned something about afternoon tea parties and they have a lot of people attending. I asked f it was open to the public or a private affair. He said it was open to anyone who wants to come to just get on their website and make a reservation when they have them. We used to have a wonderful tearoom here but it’s been gone for years and there used to be a woman who had a gift shop and would do tea parties where you could bring your dolls. But that’s gone too so hearing this was great. Their food is wonderful so I’m going to see when the next one is. I love tea and can’t imagine all the goodies that will accompany the event.
Dear Barbara, I hope you are able to plan a wedding shower tea. I know it will be lovely. You could also find a caterer and host one at someone’s house.
My tea today was lovely. The food was delicious. I had decaf Vanilla tea. We will probably go back to this tearoom in the Spring. In the mean time we have three teas in November and one in December, so far. Most of the folks in my tea club are retired so we can take tea several times a month.
Wow, those buttons are quite the haul. Of those for the donate pile, I wouldn’t be too hasty. I believe that belt buckle is Bakelite and many of the buttons are collectors items. You should join one of the button groups on FB and ask them about them, maybe. Or perhaps, you know a collector in your area who could give you some advise. Even selling the lot on Ebay could bring in cash. I know you’re looking for buttons that would work for dolls, but there are a lot there that are so special for collectors. That group of black buttons with the maybe flowers on top remind me of what my grandmother, born in the late 1880’s used to make. She used wax to put images on black buttons. It was kind of an art in the early 1900’s, I think. That tiny tin with the tokens is a great piece as well. Does it have any markings on the bottom? What does the top look like? You might want to look up the tokens to find their value too. The keys look like clock keys to me. I think Charlotte is right about the tax tokens. There are those that collect them too I didn’t see the mother of pearl bucket of buttons, but they also can be collectible. I actually made a necklace out of them years ago. Maybe Rebecca, wants to take a look? And what does the top of the button tin look like? It may be a collectible piece as well and maybe the bucket too. Boy, Jeanne, sure hit the jackpot with the buttons etc. at that yard sale. Congratulations on some great items.
Here, I’m delighted to say that PGE changed their mind about the power shut offs at some point late yesterday. I’ll tell you why. No Wind. So, looks like we’re in the clear for that problem. So relieved. We have a lovely cool, clear, day ahead so far. 🙂
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
I was trying to remember the type of material, Bakelite, Joy. I’m sure some of the items are made of it. I know I wouldn’t be able to part with a stash like that. I think some of them are definitely collectibles, made in Europe and Asia.
I’m with you Susette, on being unable to ship out any of those buttons. Would be very hard to do. 🙂
I remember when I was a kid the fun of dumping out my mother’s button tin and seeing how many sets we could match up. She had inherited buttons from my grandmother who had inherited them from her mother, each generation adding their own to the haul, so there were a lot of them. It would entertain us for hours. I have lots of buttons because I love buttons but mine are in little zip lock bags or on the cards they came on in order to find what I want quickly.
Glad Joy will not be losing her power.
Thanks on the power. We’re happy campers.
And, do you still have the buttons from your mother/grandmother? Just curious. Here, I seem to have become the holder of the family heirlooms. AKA buttons and lace. Not sure what might happen to these things as daughter and grand don’t sew. 🙁
I don’t know what happened to the button tin after my mother passed away. My one sister does amazing needlework and the other is a wonderful artist but I’m the only one that sews so I have no idea what was done with all the buttons, fabric, notions, etc. that my mother had because she did sew.
My grandfather worked for Bancroft Mills in Wilmington, DE. While they did not make fabric they finished it. If a bolt was damaged in any way it went out the door onto the reject pile. The workers were allowed to visit the pile and take what they wanted for free. My grandfather kept the fabric stashes of my mother, grandmother and one aunt – and later me – well supplied.
When I was in 7th grade I was in Seventh Grade Chorus. Of course, that meant that I had to have special wearing attire for the Christmas and Spring concerts. For Christmas it was black skirts, long-sleeve white blouses and red bows at the neck. None of which I had and we didn’t have the money to purchase them so my mother went through her fabric stockpile and found a nice piece of black fabric for my skirt and a pretty nubby white cotton for the blouse. The red ribbon for the bow we could afford. We handed patterns down in our family so we had patterns my cousin had outgrown. Spring was a pastel skirt and short-sleeve white blouse. Back to the fabric stash again and she found a lovely medium pink cotton for the skirt and I had a white blouse with short sleeves my aunt and uncle had bought me for Christmas. The total expense was whatever the ribbon cost since that was the only thing purchased. The button tin provided the buttons for the blouse.
Barbara, thanks so much for the great family history. I really enjoyed hearing about how you were able to have the special outfits. Three cheers for Bancroft Mills and the damaged bolt pile. 🙂 And I might add, some great relatives too. 🙂
What a fun find. Back in grade school friends and I went through a period where we brought and traded buttons. I had specific ones to trade and nothing that were old family ones. My mom gave me certain ones that could be let go. I think it was part of our Little House influence that was going on. I have a jar of mother of pearl buttons from my grandmother.
How fun that you traded buttons early on. Here, we traded plastic pop beads. That was a long time ago. 🙂
Button, Button, who’s got the button? That reminds me of a game we played. What a haul, Jeanne. I love buttons, but don’t have many old ones. You have some treasures there as the sisters have said. I love the 1/4 sizes.
It will be such fun to see what you do with them!
Glad you kept you power, Joy!
Thanks Sissy. We’re getting a little wind, but not much. We’re so glad we didn’t have the power off for three days. 🙂
What an interesting find! The little special trinket box reminds me of the ointment containers the doctor would give when they still made house calls!!! The tag or whatever it is with muskets or rifles on could be from an antique uniform, maybe civil war? Also China cabinets used to have keys that looked like one or two. That is so helpful that someone took the time to string together matching buttons. I’ve done that with some of mine. Really helps when you’re in a hurry to finish up something. Great eye for a special bargain. Wouldn’t it be a shame if they had gone in the landfill! Yikes!
My neighbor is at it again, he displays some of the nastiest signs, but most neighbors have problems with him and steer clear so they understand that’s going on. Had I known before I bought this place . . . I’m too old for the anxiety he causes. Peace is so underrated.
Have great day all.
So sorry about your neighbor. Must be very unnerving. Around here, the nuisance thing is supposed to be reported when a home is sold so the buyer is aware. Seems like the seller could be held libel if it wasn’t disclosed. Hope he comes to his senses soon.
During COVID they would have on the news where people in subdivisions would get food delivered and sit out in their driveways eating dinner and conversing with the neighbors all around them. They couldn’t physically get together but they found a way to still keep connected. I never lived in a place anything like that. Most neighbors I’ve had seemed to try to find fault with you for one reason or another. Not a problem right now because we live in an area where most people speak Spanish and we don’t.
So far my across the street neighbor who is not Hispanic has not said anything about my Halloween decorations but he usually is friendly enough so maybe he said his peace a few years ago and decided he’d made his point, especially since for about three years I haven’t put them out. October can be a rainy and windy month so it was probably not good weather to do that. Last year we just put the animated dragon out for the grandkids. Or maybe my neighbor is not complaining because this year one of our bigger items was not put out because it sits between our house and the mobile home where our son lives and the mobile home will be moving out onto property next to his fiancée’s parents’ home so it would be in the way of the move. Maybe he just had a problem with our blow-up of the old-fashioned hearse.
Ha ha, sounds like you have some great Halloween decor. Love it. 🙂
Jeanne, I love the buttons! I love the glass buttons and these are treasures for sure. Now…. where to use them, Well, that can be decided as the other parts of inspiration develop!
I can’t choose a favorite, but I love red! Are they all glass?
Hmm where do you suppose they are from? I guess some online searching could assist some queries!
I have a lot of buttons but last time I looked I did not have too many super special ones