All Buttoned Up

When Casey over at Casey's Elegant Musings posted about organizing a blog tour of collections, I jumped on the opportunity. The only problem? Which collections to share?? Oh dear! I realized that there was no way I could showcase my favorite collections in one single post, so I decided to make a little series devoted to my vintage collections, and this first post will be a little kick-off to the series.

You see, as a vintage lover, I've amassed a number of small (and maybe not so small) vintage-related collections over the years. I'm not a hoarder by any means, and I do try integrate everything that I collect into my every day life, from clothing to accessories to kitchen wares. My favorite things to collect are things that are useful and serve a purpose. Which brings me to my first collection: buttons!

Since I am a seamstress, it's kind of a no-brainer that I would have a decent stash of buttons. I have been collecting buttons, especially vintage buttons, for several years now. I feel like buttons are an attainable thing to collect, because they're pretty prevalent in antique stores and they're usually not expensive. Plus, they are useful! I frequently integrate my vintage buttons into my sewing projects, and feel that they give a vintage-inspired clothing piece that extra little bit of authentic period detail as well as a little bit of an heirloom quality. In fact, I even used some beautiful vintage clear glass buttons pulled from my collection on my own handmade wedding dress. The buttons were my "something old", and they were such a perfect personal expression to include on my dress.

My little jumble of clear glass vintage buttons are, hands down, my very favorite buttons in the collection. I always keep a sharp eye out for those little sparkling jewels when perusing through vintage sewing notions at antique shops. I also love funny little novelty buttons, especially ones with a nautical theme!

Undeniably, I also have a soft spot in my heart for oversized buttons. The bigger, the better! My biggest button (shown above) measures just about 2".

This is only a small part of my button collection, since I wanted to share with you the prettiest and most unique buttons I have. (I have plenty of sensibly functional cookie-cutter buttons as well!)

As I said before, I will be sharing more of my vintage-themed collections over time. I hope you enjoyed this first little peek!