Buttons boxes are under rated as a childhood pleasure in my humble opinion. I remember my Nan having a button box, or more precisely an old Quality Street tin full of buttons. It was rarely brought out (for fear of the precious buttons being lost) so being allowed to play with it was a huge treat. As a child I can remember losing entire rainy afternoons to the task of sorting buttons by colour/size/shape. My ambition was to create an entire fruit and veg stall in miniature, sadly I was thwarted as the veg shaped buttons extended merely to some green ones that looked a bit like cabbages.
Assembling a button box can be a life's work. My Nan used to snip her buttons from old clothes before they got turned into cleaning cloths. Each one told a tale of the outfit it came from. Personally I tend to give my old clothes to charity shops which means button snipping opportunities are much reduced ....
.... so I cheated! Old buttons can be ordered on Ebay by weight so I got a 500g bag for £7 and located a suitably old and battered biscuit tin.
To my delight, the children love them. They squabble over who gets to play with the heart shaped one. Willow patiently sifts through them attempting to match up full sets. Xanthe pours them on the floor and makes them into fishy shapes. And once the rainy afternoon has passed, the box is carefully secured with it's elastic band and put away from the grasp of small hands. What's that saying? Forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest?
Lovely blog post:) Do i have a button box mmm one or 2 ;) I collect button boxes, it is being like a child sorting through them and discovering what treasures are hidden at the bottom and then sorting into colours and ages. Great fun. Arthur has all the gold ones as pirate treasure :)
ReplyDeletei loved button boxes as a child and still do now! i'm territorial with my buttons so my son has his own button box which he adds to whilst i'm choosing buttons in the charity shop - he always chooses big blingy metallic ones!
ReplyDeleteLol @ boys and bling theme! Tamsyn - I thought you might have a serious button box!
ReplyDeleteLovely post - I lent my Mum's button box to a friend over 20 years ago and sadly it was never returned. Lost track of the friend and the button box now.
ReplyDeleteHowever - as Tamsyn will confirm, I have boxes and boxes, but they are for selling rather than keeping. I have my own box at home though!!
I'm inclined to agree re the forbidden fruits ...
How sad to 'lose' a family button box in that way. I was hoping Mum might still have my Nan's but no-one seems to know where it went.
ReplyDeleteYour Grandad probably threw it out. I have one at home, kept under the sink (!!??) I cut buttons off old clothes that are really old and no good to the charity shop. New buttons from new clothes go in there as well. I love picking them up and letting them slip through my fingers. Heaven.
ReplyDeleteI have 'acquired' (lol) my mum's button box...it is a very old and battered beautiful tin which we used to play with as children...I am delighted to find that you can buy buttons off ebay though as over time they have slowly deleted and like you all my clothes tend to go to charity shops....so now I'm off to ebay...thanks Tracey!! I don't think I would want to ever lose the box...too many good memories!!!!
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