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Specialized buttons can change your attitude
Author: Kat Powers | January 11, 2008
Having mad skills and little money meant my mother made a lot of clothes. And when those clothes had to be fancy — like a suit for a job interview or a wedding dress — we’d head to the Windsor Button Shop in downtown Boston.
For just a suit jacket or a coat, we would sort through the buttons in bins in the middle of the store. The really fancy ones — the horn buttons, the mother-of-pearl, the fancy leaves — came on cards you could sort through, next to the other “sewing notions” like dress shields, boas, tiaras, special sewing feet and shoulder pads. Lots of shoulder pads. It was the 80s, after all.
Since my mother isn’t available to help you sort through the bins of buttons, 
check them out online or jump on the mailing list. These buttons would look lovely decorating a quilt on a wall, but they’re so sturdy and so beautiful, you’re going to want them to dress up a suit jacket. Have an old-and-sturdy jacket you need to bring up-to-date? A classic brushed-metal button can be all the fix you need.
Every time I go to Windsor Button, I come back with more than I think I can ever use, putting the extra buttons in an old wine decanter. But I’ve used so many of these buttons on thrift store finds and quilted whatevers, I’m almost out.
I like the “Massachusetts buttons” card full of buttons at $9.99. That card comes with fun facts about the state that brought you MIT and Boston Baked Beans.
One of these days I’ll have time to make a quilt of all the states I visited on my honeymoon and I’ll use these for the Bay State. As soon as I find a pattern for Louisiana, I’ll start.
Topics: Deal of the Day, Our Favorite Things |
February 9th, 2008 at 10:33 am
If you have a student ID you get and extra 10% off.