What Do Quilters Use for Storing Buttons?
November 12, 2007 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Home & Living
Josh Johnson’s post, Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?, at Junk Creation, got me thinking about button storage over the years. Josh shows a picture of the jar his wife uses for her buttons. Quilters have long been collectors of buttons, left over from times ago when every button was precious and useful for replacing lost ones on clothing. However, in more recent years, decorating quilts and fabric art with buttons has reached new heights.
So….where do you store your buttons?
My mom used a jar, as Josh’s wife does. I have my button jar (formerly a peanut buttr jar) as well as a button tin. I try to sort some of my buttons by color, size or material they’re made from. Others I simply toss into the jar. 
You also might consider plastic containers or a bowl or basket.
Use buttons for room decoration by placing some in a jar with fancy lid and adding as an accessory on an end table, a shelf, or desk. Put some in the glass base of a lamp.
Do you collect buttons? How do you store them? Do you use them for decorating?
The history of buttons evolves into a fascinating study. Many have stories to tell. Tell us about your button collection.
I have SO many buttons! Recently, I sorted them all by color families and placed them in various jars and small bowls. They look very pretty on a top shelf in my sewing room. When the sun shines on them, the room comes alive!
You bet I collect them! And my favorite way to store them is the oldie but goodie – in mason jars, according to color
I’ve got some very old blue Ball jars that my grandmother used to store her buttons in. And just a little over a year ago, I purchased an antique sewing machine from the late 1800’s – inside the drawers were tins with the original tools for the machine itself and old tins the old lady had stored her buttons in.
I’m not a quilter, but I am a collector of old things and just imagining where those buttons came from is a day of stories all in itself.
Cyndi, I like your idea about arranging your buttons in mason jars according to color. If anyone is a jar collector, this is a great way to utilize the jars instead of storing them all away. (Incidentally, jar collecting also can become an addictive habit. My daughter and I’ve had to become more selective about our jars.)
Yup! It’s simply justification for having yet another collection…
Do I collect buttons? Yes! I have them in tins. I have a blue tin that belonged to my great-grandmother filled with wodden buttons, clothed covered buttons and buttons from my relatives uniforms, then there is the bright green tin that belonged to my grandmother. The type of buttons in her tine doesn’t differ by much but the colors are brighter. My mothers tine is gold, it holds buttons in shapes of animals that were on my siblings and my clothing when we were children along with my fathers military buttons. I can’t bear to mix these tins because they show the different ages in my heritage. Maybe oneday I’ll get the courage to make a quilt and mix the buttons on it as a keepsake my own grandchild will appreciate.
I never knew about collecting buttons until I met a wonderful woman. She started working with me and I felt that I knew her. Come to find out we lived in the same small town for years but never met. We became the best of friends. She and her 6 sisters were but colectors. They gave me a tin of buttons and I was hooked. for two years we went everyhere collecting buttons. I love the pierced. Then Shirley got cancer and I lost her. Now I don’t collect buttons anymore because it hurts to much.
Sherryl, thank you for sharing the story of your button collecting and your wonderful friend. I know it may have been difficult for you to write and share this, but in doing so, you may have comforted and encouraged someone else.