The Nostalgia and Hope of Buttons

I was working on finishing up some of the projects I started at "The Stash Bash" and just got to a point where I needed a break. And I needed to pick out and plan some buttons to complete a project.

New buttons I got at The Stash Bash! 

Finding some buttons turned into going down the rabbit hole of sorting all my buttons and then writing this post about it.

My giant bag of "white" buttons

Buttons are an interesting thing. If they are sewn to something and actually close your clothing or a bag they are incredibly practical. They can serve a function no matter their size or shape. They can be sewn on and be just decorative. Or they can sit in a jar, on a shelf, "being collected" for generations.

Vintage cover button kits

I was reminded today while sorting my buttons that many of them were once my Nana's. Not only my Nana's but so many people have given me their grandmother's fabric and button stashes that I have the collected buttons and notions of numerous mothers & grandmother's.

All of my blue buttons

And today just a few days before Mother's Day it made me miss them all. I am not usually a very sentimental or sappy person. And I am for sure a purger, I rarely attach sentiment to things. I keep and collect almost nothing.

Vintage buttons, do the red Xs mean they were on sale? 

However, I think that maybe the buttons and notions I have gathered over the years are different. They hold hope of becoming something. Something useful and loved.

The buttons are always the last thing you do. There is nothing like tying off that final knot on that final button. It is such a sense of accomplishment. It means you made something that did not exist before. You created something for someone (or sometimes yourself) to wear or use and have as a part of their life.

My bag of "random" buttons. That are lovely and loved but are a little on their own. 

I no longer get to receive newly made things from my Nana. I still have a few things she made, but not many. But I have a whole bin of buttons that she and other women collected and kept, with the same hope of finishing a project and sewing on that final button.

My bag of black buttons

On top of thinking about all the Nana's and Grandma's who have sewn before me, I wondered, "who will get these buttons when I am no longer here"? I hope my daughter will keep them, and use them. And pass them on to her friends and possibly her own children. Because for some reason there is just a little bit of hope and a little glimpse into both the past and the future in each one.

Metal buttons, the smallest category in my collection.

Even if you are not with your mother or all the mothers who cam before her, I hope you have a great Mother's Day weekend. And that you see the hope in all the jars of buttons you have sitting around your sewing room.