Buttons. A necessary sewing and clothing accessory but probably not something most people think about. As a quilter, I rarely made anything with buttons prior to making pincushions. Once Lucy and I started making pincushions, we became very interested in buttons. We have built our button stash buying at big box craft and sewing stores, antiquing, thrifting, garage sales, and eBay.

These beautiful antique glass and metal buttons were given to me by my aunt a few years ago. She collected them for many years and passed them on to me. A special button can add just the right detail.

We use a lot of small white buttons. They are just right for many of the pincushions we make.

Our white button stash was starting to run low so I decided to look on eBay to see what I could find. Jackpot – I found so many! I was willing to take a chance on some of the bigger lots and got a large amount of buttons for the money spent. If you decide to search on eBay, you can use search words for a specific item such as “white buttons” or other search terms such as “button lots”, “antique buttons”, and “glass buttons”. The majority of the lots I bought came with buttons still attached to cards.

Buttons are sorted into mason jars which we leave out for quick access.

Since the beginning of making pincushions, we have added a button to the top of our pincushions. We decided it is one element of our pincushion design that we really like. Sometimes the button is neutral or a blender with the pincushion. Other times, it’s like a little jewel on top. The following pictures are various examples of all kinds of buttons topping our pincushions.

Happy Crafting and Quilting! ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎