Sunday, August 18, 2013

Tender Buttons

I've been working on a project that needs buttons. I wish I could show it to you, but it's for Knitty. If you leak a pattern for Knitty before the issue is published, Amy Singer drives by your house and shoots out your kneecaps.

I may have already said too much by telling you the thing needs buttons.

Excuse me for a moment while I go pull down the shades and cover my kneecaps.

So, this thing needs buttons. Rather than buy buttons, I chose to raid my button stash. My button stash became my button stash when my grandmother died, and her button stash became my button stash.

Let me tell you a little bit about my grandmother.

She was born in 1919 to a Pennsylvania coal miner and his wife. She learned to sew as a small child. Her mother had a cast-iron treadle sewing machine; but she also had four daughters with able hands so she felt the sewing machine was best kept for special occasions. Plain sewing, everyday sewing, was done by the daughters.

Plain sewing included things like bedsheets, which required a flat-felled seam up the center. Flat felled seams require not one, but two lines of stitching. When the seam in a sheet wore out, my grandmother would un-pick her old work, fold the sides of the sheet to the middle, and sew a new seam. When the sewing was finished she was allowed to do something else really fun, like wash coal dust off the kitchen windowsills.

I think of this every time I feel resentful that bath towels don't fall out of the dryer already folded.

My grandmother told me she first got paid for sewing–a penny for a whole mess of handmade buttonholes–when she was seven years old. That marked her début as a professional seamstress. When she had the stroke that was the beginning of her end, at ninety-two, she was still taking in sewing.

She sewed for her family until she became a housemaid in Pittsburgh and sewed for her employers. Then she left domestic service and married my grandfather, and sewed for her husband and her children.

Then my grandfather–who survived the entire Second World War as a paratrooper in Germany without a scratch–came home and got killed a couple years later in an industrial accident. So my grandmother, who had three children under five and a fourth-grade education, went back to sewing for the whole world.

Sewing doesn't pay very well. It doesn't now, and sure didn't in the 1950s in a small Pennsylvania coal town.

When you are raising three kids with your a sewing machine you don't have a lot of extra cash to throw around. My grandmother's childhood coincided squarely with the Great Depression and her young adulthood with war rationing, so she already knew how to be thrifty. All through the post-War prosperity (which passed her by) and into the crazy sixties and wasteful seventies and the even more wasteful eighties and the profoundly wasteful nineties she continued to be thrifty. The arrival of a new century didn't faze her in the least.

She died with eight hundred tons of fabric in her cellar.

Some of it was new, but much of it was things like faded curtains that could, maybe, be made into something else some other time. You never know, right?

Upstairs, in a motley collection of containers in a closet in the back bedroom, were the buttons.

They sell buttons in stores, but you can get buttons free without even trying too hard. If something wears out and cannot become something else, before you get rid of it, you cut the buttons off. If a customer wants a dress or coat freshened with new buttons, you keep the old buttons. When other people stop sewing because who sews these days anymore, you take in their buttons.

Then you die, and your grandson takes possession of your buttons.

I was pawing through the biggest button tin and suddenly I got the urge to photograph some of the buttons. The tin is entirely disorganized but I pulled out these little button families to share with you.

You never know what you're going to get when you visit this blog, is what I'm saying.

Also, I miss my grandma.

metal-buttons

These are made of tin.

flower-buttons

Black flowers, plastic. Sunday best, circa 1977.

green-bead-buttons

Tiny green porcelain bead buttons. Much smaller in real life.
I might have these made into earrings.

star-buttons

Are you now or have you ever been a button of the Communist party?

yellow-flower-buttons

Buttercups. Dainty.

overall-buttons

Built to last.

hashtag-buttons

#buttons


60s-button

And the lone survivor of a vibrant tribe remembers the fabulous 1960s.

238 comments:

1 – 200 of 238   Newer›   Newest»
Unknown said...

Thank you for this. I never knew my Depression-era grandmothers due to Alzheimer's and heart disease, and so instead I remember vicariously through others.
And you can never have too many buttons.

Renee said...

I used to run my fingers through my grandmother's stash of buttons kept in an old cigar box. Do you have any of the jeweled "brooch-type coat buttons?

Revlahart said...

Completely lovely. Thank you for this. My whole evening just became more calm and happy.

Karen B. said...

Oh, Franklin! I love this.

Ellen B said...

I inherited my Grandma's button stash and crafting toolkit after she died, along with a bunch of hand-stitched pillowcases, antimacassars and similar. I always think of her when I look through the big biscuit tin for buttons for a project.

Sandra said...

Thank you so much for sharing your grandmother's life with us. I don't blame you for missing her. What a woman! I have a collection of buttons from my husband's grandmother and like using them for things I make for my grandchildren. Circle of life feeling.

Deb Holbrook said...

I inherited my Nana's heavy old Singer sewing machine (one that is attached to a sewing table) - it doesn't work very well and I don't really know how to sew so we are a good match. It's beautiful and the drawers of the table and the storage bench are filled with Nana's odds and ends, including old photos of people no one can identify but I can see family resemblance in them...and even though Nana and Grampa have been gone for 15 yrs, the leather seat of the bench is still redolent with the smell of my Grampa's cigars and pipe tobacco. I miss my Nana and Grampa too.

Kat said...

Beautiful. I have a vintage tapestry shoe bag full of buttons collected by my maternal grandmother, and jelly jars full of buttons collected by my paternal grandmother. They are among my most valuable possessions, and I'm certain that I need not explain why. I miss both my Grandmas, too. The photos are beautiful, and bring back memories of learning to sew (and knit, and cook, and can) at my Grandmas' knees. Thank you.

kashurst said...

I, too have a tin of my grandmother's buttons. I have fond memories of sifting through them as a child, picking out my favourites and grouping them in various ways. Thank you for a great post! And may your kneecaps stay intact.

Mimi said...

Those are much more interesting than the buttons I inherited. Except for the 2 giant abalone shells with the silver flies. One of those went on a Knitty project (Colonnade). I do love the old Camel cigarette tin they came in.

Anonymous said...

Franklin, thank you for sharing your grandma with us. Your love shows through your writing.

After my best friend died, I received a jar of buttons she had collected and carefully arranged in an old canning jar. Her husband told me not to use the buttons, they were an art object. With the addition of a new young dog to our family, the jar was broken and the buttons scattered. My husband retrieved the buttons and for a while they sat in a jumble. Then I remembered Martha Stewart did a story about Victorian button charms. Victorian girls strung buttons together and at a certain number (999?), their True Love would appear. So I laid all the buttons out, grouped them into families and using heavy thread, strung them all together. It hangs in my office today and I treasure it.

Buttons do indeed hold things and people together.

Anonymous said...

Will anyone take our buttons in the future? It still seems like wasting and tossing are what people do now.

Elena Jardiniz said...

How lovely! My grandmothers, proudly, didn't sew. They had arrived, they had Enough Income to buy their clothing now, and they did so, thank you for noticing that they were not so poor as to have to sew for themselves.

My mother, however, DID sew. Proudly, extremely well, and militantly. She knitted the same way. And firmly stated, when the sloppy 60's arrived, that "Hand made does NOT mean badly made!" And pointed to the Craftsman movement, brushing aside the deliberate dinging up of things to commend the beautiful and well designed. I agree.

And I delight in finding the old, the unusual, the beautifully made old things that were well made because they should be well made and should last.

Kirsten said...

This was so lovely and nostalgic and sentimental in the best way and then #buttons made me spit pink wine. Which then made me sentimental about my mother and the wasteful eighties.

Sherinik said...

I am open to receiving stashes of such things; in my extended family group I don't think anyone else much is, mostly not being crafters. The result is that I occasionally receive cardboard boxes of goodies from so-and-so's Aunt Edna. Last night I was pondering what to do with half a ball of lace weight yarn in bright red from my grandmother's stash, and wondering who on earth she bought it for, and what it was used to make. It was mixed in with assorted sewing supplies - needles in little tins and such.

Anonymous said...

Totally love this post! I too, am a button saver (and re-user)....... I love your Grandma. Fran 39

handknitter said...

I love the phrase "button families." And the photos are breathtaking, natch.

Anonymous said...

Sigh. A lovely post in so, so many ways. Thank you.

Jill said...

Such a treasure. Thank you for sharing.

Kathleen Lawton-Trask said...

My grandmother grew up in Oklahoma in the 1910s and 1920s. She saved everything, too: when she died, we found boxes marked things like "Gas Bills, 1960s." She and her sisters made beautiful quilts...although for a brief period in the 1970s the quilts were made of polyester. I tell you!

Colleen said...

This is such a beautiful tribute to a remarkable women. You've started my day in the loveliest way...many thanks. I have my grandmother's sewing needles and (dare I say) crochet hooks, which are a treasure to me.

Torhild (from NL) said...

Oh I just love buttons too. Every time something has worn out and will have to be thrown away, I do indeed cut the buttons off. Surly everyone does that?? ;-)
Come to think of it, my mum has/had a small wooden tool box full of buttons and thread etc. I need to ask if she's still got it and then it shall be MINE....!!
Sadly, when my gran died, I wanted her old cast iron Singer sowing machine, but my parents threw it away when going through her house!! as it wasn't working anyway!! Geez!!! Many years later I'm still upset thinking about it...!!

Wibbo said...

Aww, what a lovely post! I miss my grandma too; she taught me to crochet.

TomT said...

Thanks! Many happy memories of my Gram who taught me to knit.

Anonymous said...

I loved this post. May you be blessed every time you look at your grandmother's buttons! Also, thank you for clearing up something for me. Many years ago I read a book (probably written in the 1940s) which referred to something called "sides to middling" as a method of extending the life of sheets. I always wondered what it meant, and I think the work you described your grandmother as doing -- ripping out the center flat-felled seam of sheets and putting the previous sides of the sheet in the middle -- must be the same thing. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Now resolving to spend more time than ever with my 93 year old grandmother. Need to treasure every moment.

Anna said...

I have my own button collection, which I have been OCD enough to sort into individual baggies so sets of buttons are grouped together so I don't have to do too much digging. My grandmother has a giant tin of buttons (unsorted, so far as I recall), and another tin of ribbons and lace bits, which always seemed like a magical thing to sort through when I was little. I'll probably end up with these when she dies (hopefully not for many more years) because I am the sewing granddaughter.

Anonymous said...

I loved seeing you on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. How much knitting did you guys bring to the show? It looked like Carl Kasell got yarn bombed.

Sarah Abbott

Bonny said...

Thanks so much for the reality check; while I am painting today (and possible grumbling about it) I will remind myself that I am not sewing flat felled seams by hand. I LOVE your buttons, and would love to see more if you are so inclined. Of all the things I have of my grandmother's, her buttons are the most evocative for me. I loved going through them as a child, and still do as an adult.

The Foggy Knitter said...

Have a big hug, I miss my grandma too

Buttons are awesome, I seem to be starting a collection, the only defence I can think of is that they take up less space than yarn and that I do use them occasionally.

Pam Sykes (aka Pretty Knitty) said...

I have buttons from my grandmother, and both of my husband's grandmothers...an old button box (or tin, or whatever container) is just magical. Thanks for sharing your grandmother (and her buttons) with us. :)

thegeorg said...

I have some buttons like that, also from one of my grandmothers (I have both grandmothers' buttons).

Dorothy said...

You have some beautiful buttons. It wasn't until I retired last year that I was introduced to button collecting. I'd never heard of it. My friend is my mentor and I have joined button clubs and gone to button shows. Serious collectors keep their buttons on cards artistically arranged by button type. My friend sold her collection at auction for a lot of money. And she started to collect again. I collect all buttons but love my Victorian buttons the most. It's such a fun hobby!

Benita said...

I had my grandmother's button collection, too, and used so many of them making my and my mother's clothes while growing up (yes, I was the family seamstress by the age of nine because my grandmother taught me to follow in her footsteps and Mom hated to sew), that I have very few buttons left. But I used to love playing with them, sorting them, playing memory games with them and just looking at them.

I miss my grandmother, too.

Eileen said...

Beautiful post. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Lovely story, and some interesting buttons. I too inherited my Grandmother's (Nan's) buttons. I remember playing with them as a child, and somewhere there is a photo of myself aged about two, or something toddler age, sitting on the floor, lining up buttons on the swirls of the patterned carpet - so they have other uses too! I've now been given a friend's mother's tin of buttons. One can never have too many.

Anonymous said...

On rainy days my sisters and I would string together "the crown jewels".

Penny said...

Thank you for this post. I too have my Grandmother's button jar. Mine lived through the 1st World War (Zeppelin raids on London) and 2nd World War (Messerschmit raids across the back garden with 3 small children in the house - the raid came too fast to get in the Anderson shelter in the garden). What a magnificent generation they were - I feel blessed to have known her so well. And, like yours, she was still making her own clothes and knitting her own cardigans and sweaters at 92. Every butter paper scraped, every sugar bag turned inside out and the last grains extracted, every meal, jam, pickle and cake home-baked. We simply do not know we are born!!

Deb said...

I wish I could find my grandma's button tin. In one of our moves it went missing. But I have never given up finding it! One year for mother's day I sewed several onto a sweatshirt and gifted it to my mom. She knew the story for every single button:)

Anonymous said...

I agree wholeheartedly with Revlahart above.
-- stashdragon

Su1282 said...

My grandfather (same vintage) gave away my grandmother's button box because he thought none of us would want it. A momentary lapse from a lifetime of good judgement, but it still eats at me.

Mimi said...

I have my grandfather's and grandmother's buttons. He was a tailor in the garment district in New York, and she sewed and did crochet piece work. Lovely column!

Savannagal said...

What a lovely post about your grandmother. She was a wise woman. Your post also fondly reminded me of Tender Buttons, the store - long gone. I'm sure you know of it. I loved going there and dearly miss it. They had the biggest and nicest selection of buttons around Chicagoland.

RubyC said...

Having lost my mother in the last 10-12 days, the talk of button boxes brings back lots of memories. She always had one with those buttons collected from odd places. I loved it. By the time she went into nursing care, she had already given away her button box, but I have one that I started. I love collecting buttons from all sorts of places. It is a great walk down memory lane, Frankling

DivaDar said...

My Grandma had a cast iron sewing machine and made button holes by hand. I wish that I learned to make them too. After her death I received some of her knitting needles, which I occasionally still use particularly for knitting socks. And I also rescued some sock DPNs from my Mom's kitchen - she was using them as cake testers. Egads! I think our ancestors are with us still after they die.

Sahara said...

Gee, your post made me a bit misty-eyed. Your grandmother basically left you hundreds of blessings. Use a little at at time. Then you will live to 92. And blessed!

Patti said...

I don't know what happened to my mothers button jar after she passed away, I'm sure my dad just tossed it out along with our comic book collection and all those 78's that were actually in ALBUMS, but it's the button jar I pine for most. At least I got her little recipe box!

FiberQat said...

I have my mother's button collection. There are buttons from Army and Navy uniforms, jet and mother-of-pearl buttons, bakelite buttons, and utility buttons from many shirts. I added to them buttons from Pendleton's surplus.

One group of buttons were golden half spheres with long shanks. I was able to remove the shanks and make them into doll bowls.

kmkat said...

The button box was one of my favorite playthings when I was a child. Now I have my own, which was magnificently enriched when I inherited my MIL's button box. http://tinyurl.com/l2wq9pl

Stephanie said...

Wow, your grandmother sounds awesome. My paternal grandmother who was born in 1930 (who lived in the coal mining area of Scranton) only had one tin of buttons, but used to perfectly fold wrapping paper and roll ribbon into super tight spirals. Growing up in the depression never leaves you. (sjn821 on Rav)

Nigel Pottle said...

I can't let this go without mentioning the original "Tender Buttons", a rather odd book by the American writing genius Gertrude Stein. Here's a link to the book which you can read free: http://www.bartleby.com/140/

Love This Space said...

She sounds fabulous. I think I'd better call my grandmother tonight as you made me very wistful for her. I'm so lucky I still have her.

Emily. said...

I also have a similar button collection. It has waxed and waned over the years, as buttons get used for things, and new buttons join. It is a source of joy to see my kids now playing with the buttons I used to line up "like soldiers" when I was little.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this post it was.....perfect

Beth V. said...

I love the tin ones and the "#" ones! My button stash is woefully underfunded. Must be time to go to some yard sales & change that.

Thanks once again for a truly lovely post.

Susan Halstead said...

So so lovely. I, too, have my great grandmother's button box and her very clever sewing box that looks like a wooden picnic basket. Many of the buttons are still strung together with thread that I can remember stringing myself as I sat with Great while she sewed.

LostCityDenise said...

::sigh::
Flat felled seams and vintage button stashes.

As a Home-Ec geek in the 1970's I learned to make crisp perfect flat felled seems early on and still love them. My teacher insisted that our garments be perfect inside and out and that we never left a ragged seam. Ever.

I love to hunt through my spouse's grandmother's button tin for treasures and have used a few now and then on special projects.

Last weekend at a fiber fest there was a booth of vintage buttons. You would have loved it! The button lady told me there is a vintage button guild, and that she's been a member for over twenty years!.

Anonymous said...

I miss my grandmother, too. After she died my mom sent me her knitting needles, smooth from use, kept in the plastic sleeve, 35 cent price sticker still visible.

Patti said...

I forgot to add, that I'm in the process of creating my own button jar that I do hope my granddaughter will want and enjoy some day.

Kate Essex said...

Two grandmothers from opposite sides of my family taught me to knit (with two opposite teaching methods, having both been teachers in very different subjects). My Grams is rather grumpy and seems to have given up knitting in favor of things like learning jazz guitar and touring Italy with her mother. My Grandma passed away, but when I knit I remember her awful porch furniture where she taught me the knit stitch with hot pink acrylic yarn and mismatched needles, and how we would all play dress-up with her mountain of costume jewelry. Left to my own devices, I knit for hours on end, so I remember Grandma a lot.

Man, that furniture was hideous.

soxanne said...

One of my gandmothers was a seamstress too - raised her children alone after divorcing her hisband in the 1920s (quite the formidable woman!)

My other grandmother loved to crochet and I treasure the crochet-covered hangars that she made and I still use (acrylic is forever).

I miss them too. And my dad, who was a WWII vet but died young.

Oh, and I still cut the buttons off things that cannot be repurposed any more. Let's hear it for tradition!

Fujiyamamama said...

I love this post; the sentiment, the photos and the buttons.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Franklin. What a trip down memory lane. I had and treasured my gramma's button collection. Then once, when downsizing I put them in a church garage sale. Wish I still had them. Lately I've begun a new collection as I tear clothing apart to use in rug-hooking. Must get them a proper box and on display for next time my grand-daughters visit.

Lindr said...

I'm a little frightened. Having watched your Victorian swimming drawers progress, and now reading about your grandmother's thriftiness and upbringing, I can only think of the old saying, "Sew buttons on your underwear!". Does Knitty have a market for handknit underwear?

p.s. Delightful memories. Thank you for sharing.

Cara said...

My Mom has my great-grandmother's button drawer. I have really, really great memories of playing with them. I'll still drive to her house and raid the drawer, when I need something quaint for a project. And, I never throw away a button in hopes that some day my great-grandchild will be sifting through mine.

Susan said...

Oh, what a lovely tribute--that made me miss my grandma, too. I have her button box, although it's not nearly as extensive as yours, and I used to love playing with them as a child.

dana said...

what a treasure trove!
when i was a child, playing with my mom's button stash was a wonderful rainy day activity.
my children were able to enjoy her button collection too.

Meredith MC said...

So funny- I was just admiring my tiny collection of thrift store and flea market buttons. i really scored at an estate sale about a year ago. I won't have any passed down buttons- my evil stepfather got rid of my mom's sewing supplies after she passed away without asking her kids (me!). Anyway, thanks for sharing. I love buttons and not everyone in my life understands this.

Liz said...

I, too, enjoy buttonboxes (where do you think I got the name for my Knitty design?) My grandmother, born 1894, had one with buttons from several generations before. It had buttons that had been to dinner at Buckingham Palace, through battles in the Boer War, and to the outer reaches of the colonies (a Northwest Mounted Police officer's uniform--now the Mounties). So much family history in one small space!

Melanthe said...

Oh my gosh, this made me miss my Grandmas so much right now, I can't breathe. My grandma probably did sew at some point in her life, I will inherit her Singer treadle sewing machine from my mother. Grandma was a laundress, had lived in wood shacks with dirt floors and for the entire time I knew her, she crocheted. She could and did churn out afghans every 2 or 3 weeks.

I have to go crochet something right now.

Thank you for the beautiful post.

Unknown said...

I think most women who grew up during the Depression learned a variety of handy skills. When her grandbabies were born, Grandma started sewing our clothes. Mom said the earliest outfits were pretty bad. However, the ones I remember had appliques and lace she had either bought on sale...or removed from other items.

And I thought everyone knew that you never discard an item with usable buttons...unless you are donating it for someone else to wear.

Anonymous said...

I, too, am the keeper of the button bins. Grandma's and her sister's for now. Such memories every time I go pawing through them.

I thought the # buttons were going to be labeled Twitter buttons. :)

Gail said...

I would buy a print of those lovely buttons.

I have my grandfather's scissors - he was a tailor, lost his job cutting sample garments during the depression. My father - his youngest - would save cords from appliances (which he was forever fixing) and string from the bakery (remember bakery boxes with string?). When we cleaned out his workbench last summer (husband had to to it, I couldn't) there were the pieces of wire and all the screws, etc., all sorted in small jars. I wish I had a picture of that workbench.

I miss him daily.

Lovely essay, lovely memories, and thanks from a fellow button box aficionado (though mine is much much smaller.)

Martha0051 said...

I hope it helps to know your grandma lives on in your heart and hands.

Seanna Lea said...

I got my buttons as a stash from someone who wanted knitting work from me and though that there was a large matching stash of buttons in the small box she handed me. There wasn't, but the box (now changed to a mason jar) is now the first place I turn to when I know I only need a few buttons.

June said...

Golly, now I miss your grandma, too.

Thank you for sharing. Watch out for your kneecaps! :)

Anonymous said...

Dear Franklin, I think you are just the very best. Thanks for being the wonderful person you are. You remind me of my own family. Bless you and thank you. You bring tears to my eyes.

in serous need of a yarn cave said...

Our Grandmothers were cut from the same cloth. I miss my Grandmother too. I inherited many of her quilts, sewing basket with old sewing needles, silk thread and buttons. She was a bit of a packrat too..never used her "best" things, but I suspect she saved them for me.
((Thanks for sharing your story with us.))

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Unknown said...

I just started reading your blog...what a find!! Today's entry was such a treat. I miss your Grandma too...what a dear. My own father had a similar upbringing and so I know the mindset. Can't wait to see your project with the buttons...oops I have said too much.

Unknown said...

Wonderful memories and scrumptious buttons, Franklin. My great-grandmother had a tin full of buttons. She would thread a darning needle with string, tie a knot in the end, and let me string buttons to keep me occupied - necklaces, bracelets, whatever. After I went home, she'd cut the knot off and put the buttons back for another day's entertainment. I have her buttons and my mother's. Sometimes I just like to sink my hand in them and see what I bring up. It always brings up good memories.

Katie said...

I miss my grandma, too! I also inherited her button collection, but they are mostly run of the mill.

I love the star buttons - makes me think of a baby boy "cowboy" cardigan with fringe, or something of that ilk.

Good luck finding what you need!

Katie =^..^=

Gwyn said...

I have many collections of buttons, including one from a lovely lady very much like your grandmother. My favorite collection is one from the late lamented Ark Thrift shop in Lakeview; a huge basket just STUFFED with buttons. They said as I was purchasing it, "Oh we can just throw those away for you." I apparently screamed so, that they thought I was having a fit. Thank you for sharing some of your lovely collection!

Leigh in Portland (we are not burning down) said...

I miss my grandma too. I have about half of her buttons (my mom likes them too) but have often been the beneficiary of others' button stashes. I love looking through them. So many little treasures.

@Su1282 - sorry your grandma's button stash got given away - but probably, whoever received it is cherishing it.

Peg in Kensington, California said...

Oh, what a beautiful remembrance. I have my mother-in-law's buttons. She saved the buttons from my father-in-law's West Point cadet uniforms. I put them on a sweater and hat that I knit. She had many buttons that I knew I would never use so I gave them to a friend who sews lots of vintage style clothes for herself and her daughter. She loves them and has used them. She sewed lots of clothes for herself and upholstered lots of furniture. I ended up with buttons, material, and other things. I shared some with my sister.

Anonymous said...

My grandmother had an amazing stash of buttons, and one of my earliest memories is her letting myself and my cousin play with them when we were four years old. Total choking hazard, but she knew we had more sense. :) I called her "Granny Buttons," and even now, although she died when I was a teenager 20+ years ago, I still do. She lived on the Falls Road in Belfast (the low-income Catholic area of the city) and sewed or knit or crocheted most of her kids' clothing, including her daughters' wedding dresses and a gorgeous Aran pullover for her son, my dad, that I want to copy some day. And I still wonder what happened to those buttons-- I'll have to ask one of my aunts. Thanks for a lovely reminder.

Red said...

What a lovely post.

My maternal grandparents had a tailoring business in Taiwan. I like to think I get my hand making talent from them. I wish I had some of their things, or the things they made for me.

On the other hand, my daughter's Chinese name is Ya Mei, which means Elegant Beauty, the name of their business.

Ellen said...

Buttons are the best tiny pieces of history. I've got a stash from my mother and two grandmothers, and possibly even some from great-grandmothers. Wood, bone, plastic, metal, some with threads still attached where they were cut off. I recently pulled a hundred unique buttons in different shapes and colours for my grandkids, because you can never start your button stash too early!

Anonymous said...

Gertrude Stein notwithstanding, there is a store named Tender Buttons in Manhattan on the east side. Or there was one last year. They had a set of celluloid buttons with movie stars on them, including my second cousin Tyrone Power.

Anonymous said...

Me, too.

Dawn said...

I loved your post about your grandmother. What a loving tribute. I played with my grandmother's button tin as a child. I also inherited her buttons. Now my granddaughters play with them. Thanks for sharing your story and your lovely button photos.

Barbara said...

When my mother died, my sister and I inherited her buttons--many of which had come from her mother. When her sister asked for something to remember my mother by, we sent--what else--buttons. Buttons from our grandmothers' stashes, our mother's stash, and a few from our own.

Quasipsyco said...

I just recently inherited a bunch of buttons from my maternal grandmother. I just met her last year and she died this spring.
It is the first time I have received buttons. I love each one of them.

Gaynell said...

Thank you for this post. It touched my heart.

Carole said...

Thank you! I miss my Grandma and Great Grandma, too and they left buttons. Not seamstress ones like yours, but boot buttons and ? Underwear? buttons - all very utilitarian, but precious. They reside in a lampbase my mother put together so that she could admire them. Someday I am going to sew many of them onto a Pearlie vest.

Tal Landeau said...

Thank you, for your lovely story of your grandmother. I miss both of mine so much but am comforted with the memories of their humor in the face of all life threw their way.

Heidi said...

Absolutely lovely. Now I'm reminded not only of Grandma's button tin, but how wonderful her laundry smelled when she dried it on the line. We were lucky to know our wonderful grandmothers.

Anonymous said...

Great post. You had an awesome grandmother.
Betty

Shelda said...

I also have my grandmothers' buttons. Both of them. Lovely post; thank you.

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Beth in MN said...

Aren't grandma's button tins the BEST?! Thanks for the memories ... ;-)

nosenabook said...

Thank you for explaining "turning the sheets." It's a phrase I run across in my genre reading from time to time. I didn't know sheets had a seam up the middle to start with.

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Bright red basting thread. Tradecraft. Your grandma. All our grandmas. Lovely.

Anonymous said...

Wow are we spoiled. Rotten. I know this, but reading your post sort of brings it home. I am pretty sure my grandmother and yours shared the depression, make do, never waste, don't complain ethic. My grandmother would paint her daughter's shoes to match their outfits, then repaint them for the next of many daughters. Your grandmother sounds amazing and I know you miss her. I've been missing mine a little longer. We are so lucky to have them in our memories!!

Anonymous said...

My mother was like your grandmother: tougher than a Navy Seal. Never a piece of old clothing thrown out without it being stripped of buttons, zippers, snaps, lace--anything that could be reused. And, of course, when she sewed, all scraps saved to piece into quilts for our beds (the only blanket in the house was Daddy's Army blanket that he brought home). This was what she did in her spare time after taking care of five kids with all the cooking, cleaning, canning and preserving, washing done in a wringer washer and hung on the line, the next half-day devoted to ironing all those clothes...you get the drift. In the summer and fall, she went to the orchards and picked peaches and olives to earn money for extras, like a new sofa or freezer. It makes me laugh when I hear people complain about being so exhausted because they have sat at a computer all week. They don't have a clue as to what real work is. A lot of people that struggle with their finances today need to look to the past and how people managed when times really were hard. Thanks for your grandmother's story. It's inspiring.

Maureen said...

Thank you for introducing me to your grandma. My maternal grandma lived her life similarly and made everything matter and count. What was your grandma's name? You never said. I am SO glad you miss her. Because in missing her, she comes to rest right by your side and guides your knitting hands. So much love in your writing.

Ytknits said...

I love buttons and several years ago I was at an estate auction and fell in love with a quite old tole-painted canister which I was lucky enough to purchase. It was a bit heavy and when I got home and pried the cover off of it...surprise, surprise! It was filled with buttons and clasps, most of them older than I am. It still makes me smile to think of it.

KnitWit said...

I also inherited my grandma's button collection. This post brought back memories.

I may go home after work today and rummage through the button tin -- just because...

planethalia said...

This reminds me so much of my Great Aunt Mary. I think she may have grown up in an identical Pennsylvania coal town.

caitlinsgrandma said...

I have my mothers buttons. She was born in 1916 in Australia and many of her life experiences were similar to your grandmothers. I played with the buttons as a child and my daughters played with them when they visited her. Thank you for awakening the memories. I will have the tin out for my grandchildren to enjoy the next time they visit!

Tal Landeau said...

Franklin, thank you so much for your tender words...they brought back memories of my grandmothers and their struggles to raise families and just keep going day to day. In my memories and the things I create, they live on.

Anonymous said...

Franklin, thanks so much for reminding me. My sisters and I used to play with the buttons in my Gram's big button box, fighting over the sparkly ones, trying to find the biggest ones, etc. You made me miss her...again. She grew up in Jefferson Co. Pa, strip mining was a way of life and she lived out her life as a frugal and creative farm wife. I learned a lot from her and once again, I am so grateful for her presence in my life. I keep my own button box just like her...

yogaticha said...

Franklin, your blog had me crying. My grandmother was a seamstress, too. She was a single mother of one, but she supported my great-grandmother and always sent $$ to her two brothers in Mexico. She worked in factories sewing for other folk, working her way up from a piece worker to a sample maker. She had a knack for lining up stripes and zig-zags. She also embellished things she made...When I was little, she would even make my Easter hats! Then, after 8 hours at a machine in town, and a long bus ride home, she would sit another 4-6 hours sewing all our clothes. Clothes for my great-grandmother, her sister, my mom, my three brothers, my two sisters, her sister and me! She had a trunk that was filled with ribbons, threads, zippers, buttons, all the notions a seamstress could possibly need. And, yes boxes of buttons. I have no clue where the buttons are, or all those notions for that matter, but her Singer sewing machine is in my hallway and every time I pass it, I think of my grandmother, whom I loved completely. She refused to teach me how to sew, because she did not want me making my living the way she did. When my mother died and we cleaned out the house, I found a box with my grandmother's knitting needles and a bunch of swatches she had made...I think I'm going to have the swatches framed as a tribute to her and hang it above her sewing machine.

Dorothy said...

What a special idea...a wonderful tribute to your grandmother!!! Lovely post!!!

Dorothy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Snow said...

Thank you so much for the button photos. Each button family deserves a quality portrait-the stories they could-and do tell.
My grandmother was widowed about the same time as yours with 2 young children and she supported them by sewing.
I learned my colors as a child by picking buttons out of Grandma's button tin, handed down to Mom.
And when Mom passed, I wandered the house, found myself at her desk, next to her button tin. Such a simple thing it would seem but the sound of the lid popping off, the feel of the buttons running through my fingers, hearing my Mom's voice as if she were standing there, telling me the story of the tiny tiny pink crystal buttons....
Thank you Franklin.

Jan said...

Grandma's & buttons. It brings tears to mt eyes.

Susie said...

Thank you for your beautiful, heartfelt words. Love it.

kate-the-enabler said...

I have just seen the new hat on Knitty - and read your writeup, and now read THIS Blog entry. The whole process, photographs, reading your words and coveting the hat has added warmth to a deliciously gloomy (weather) day. Thanks again. I want the hat in exactly those colours. It's perfect.

Sarah said...

I love your button collection. I inherited my Great Grandmother's buttons. She lived near by an old paper mill where they took in rags (with the buttons still on them) The buttons were just flung onto the floor and when the building was demolished the buttons remained in the field. Some of them are quite stunning. She also saved all the buttons from her clothing. My Grandma did the same and I have the combined collection. Thanks for sharing this!

Linda said...

So, is a Prince Valiant hat forthcoming???????????

Anonymous said...

I have my Nanna's buttons, always remove buttons from old clothes and still turn sheets sides-to -middle although not by hand. Each of my daughters and granddaughters have been given a sewing set on setting up their own household with a few of the Nanna buttons included.

idyllicchick said...

Lovely photos, sir. Buttons are true little treasures.

ricki said...

I always wanted a button stash, but could not seem to get really interesting buttons. My mother-in-law passed away about a month ago. She did not throw ANYTHING away. I found many tins, boxes, and bags of buttons. So, I took a beautiful crystal vase and filled it with the buttons. Still had too many so I took out all the white buttons and put those in a separate interesting jar. They are wonderful...and I smile every time that I look at them.

Jamie said...

What a wonderful blog post. Your grandmother would be so proud to know how much you think of her. I'm from a coal town in Pennsylvania as well - Shickshinny near Mocanaqua and Glen Lyon!
Thank you for sharing.

Lori Anderson said...

I freaking love buttons...used some vintage ones in my piece today. I recognized some from your collection. Sorting buttons and beads helps sooth my mind, although I've been crocheting blankets bit by bit at night while watching tv since I don't have to follow a pattern. My brain for patterns flew away after I had my baby, but before that,video knocked out a few sweaters, at least!

Vicky said...

Just catching up on blog reading and I was so sorry to read the news, but in a strange way, completely heartened that these small little random items will now be with you and on the new things you create.
I have some from my own Grandmother and although none of the buttons had a grand or exciting back story, the things I made and used them on, special things, feel like they were always hers.

Della said...

I'm a grandma with many button jars. Some inherited, some from my days at a fabric store, some extras from old projects. I hope someone wants them when I'm gone. If not, I will will them to you.

Della said...

I'm a grandma with many button jars. Some inherited, some from my days at a fabric store, some extras from old projects. I hope someone wants them when I'm gone. If not, I will will them to you.

bnd said...

whao ! Ces boutons sont magnifiques !

Cathy N said...

My first stop at your blog and this is what I read! How fantastic. I love your grandmother, and I, too, have a button collection. I will be back for more - many thanks to my friend who recommended your blog.

Kristi said...

I accidentally bumped into this blog. Great button story and great writing. You just made my evening, thanks for that!

Michelle said...

Late to comment here, but enjoying this old post. I gathered a few precious things from my grandmother, but not a button collection.

Doc Ann asked if anyone would take our buttons. For me, yes. I'm the grandma with the buttons. And I have a grandson who adores the buttons. And has his own collection, because we can't go to a yarn store without getting some for me, and some for him. :)

Kylie said...

She died with eight hundred tons of fabric in her cellar.

Challenge accepted!!

(Thank you for sharing.)

Kata Galau said...

Oke Tanks Brother

Kata Mutiara said...

Oh, Franklin! I love this

Cathryn said...

My grandma had a button stash too. My mother has it now. Also, I miss my grandma too.

Gina said...

Awww! You're going to make me cry. My grandmother died in May 2012. I have her button stash too and I also miss her.

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Anonymous said...

I loved your post about your grandmother and her sewing history. I have a very small, sporadically-updated blog. Back in May of 2012, I posted about my grandmother's sewing and buttons. If you'd like to read it, go here: http://goatsandhounds.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/old-memories-into-something-new/

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I know I'm late commenting. I was fortunate enough to get my mom's button box-an old metal container that held candy originally. One year she asked me what I wanted for my birthday and without a pause I told her I wanted her button box. She said take it, but what do you want for your birthday? I love that box and occasionally I'll use buttons from it.

April said...

It is incredible the quality and quantity of hand sewing that was done in the past. My Grandma was a child of the depression and while she is now solidly middle class she refuses to throw out or waste any material that crosses her path.

I've received 3 full packing boxes of material to date. Not so many buttons though. I think she is still holding onto her stash.

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