The Button Box

This is our button box. I know it's not a box; it's a can. We just always referred to it as the button box! This is a beloved item in our home! For as long as I can remember, this same can has been holding buttons. All of them are from my late Great Aunt who came from Italy as a young girl in the 1920's and worked in the garment district for a clothing factory. As the years passed, she managed her "floor" of this factory and always brought home buttons, material and trimming.

Every child in our family wore our Aunt's handmade pajamas, slips, and summer dresses. If we were no longer wearing a particular piece clothing and it couldn't be passed on, before it was discarded all the buttons came off and were put into this can. When Mom was replacing a button, she went to this can to search for a match. My Aunt would bring home buttons and into the can they went!My kids love this can of buttons because it gave them so much joy playing with it! Caitlin fills up little cups with buttons and pretends she's cooking with them and when Billy was little he used to love to sort them, group them and use his little action figures to dive into the can! All in all, it may just be a can of buttons but it's very special. The buttons are beautiful. I especially love all the red ones! So I went to this can to find just the right buttons for the stitchery I'm doing. The buttons will be my flowers! Not a cluster; just a single button to represent each flower. Whe I finish with my *very* simple project, I'll show you!