Archive | March 2021

National BUTTON WEEK Day 5!!!

Here are a few images of more buttons!

These are a few wall hangings that I have made using buttons. These are all featured in The Embroidery Book, by C&T Publishing.

Bouncing Button Balloons

This wall hanging is randomly strip pieced with scraps of silk, moire, and bengaline fabrics, with accents of vintage lace fabric. Their are vintage celluloid buttons with a few fabric buttons mixed in. The embroidery is worked in perle cotton and seed beads.

Rustic Door

For this piece I choose batik fabrics that varied from rust to brown. I found these wonderful blue buffed celluloid buttons, which I paired with brass buttons, buckles and both vintage and new keys. The rust and vintage blue ribbons just keep the colors flowing.

Lady Bird 2

This piece started with a crazy pieced base of cotton prints, I added in lace and ribbon as accents. The embroidery is worked with perle cotton and cotton threads. The embellishments include vintage and new buttons, ribbonwork vignettes and garden tools.

Mystic Twilight

The base of this piece started with strip-pieced batik fabrics, that were machine quilted to resemble the wood grain of a fence. I chose clear glass buttons in a variety of sizes for the flower centers, and clear painted back buttons for the accents. The embroidery is worked in both perle cotton and cotton floss, with beads added in for accents.

The Village Sleeps Tonight

The base of this piece is synthetic felt, the pre-cut houses are made from a rayon/wool blend felt that was a gift from Barbara at Joggles.com. I added in a dyed rick rack border, and stitched the details with both solid and variegated perle cotton #8. The buttons are all new, except for the four large buttons in the corners, and the one in middle of the center house.

Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen

National BUTTON WEEK Day 4!!!

Here are a few images of more buttons!

These are a few items that I have made with shell buttons.

heart shapes covered in MOP buttons

This is a wreath that I made using a vintage embroidered openwork cotton collar and some vintage velvet milliner’s leaves for the base. There are 5 fabric covered heart shapes that I adorned with mother of pearl, MOP, buttons.

mother of pearl buttons

Here is a sprinkling of some of the buttons in my MOP collection.

This is another example of my class Vintage at Heart. The covered heart shape base also included vintage lace, satin ribbon and grosgrain ribbon. A few vintage buckles are mixed in with the vintage mother of pearl buttons.

bracelets made from vintage tahiti shells

Here you will find a selection of bracelets made from a variety of mollusk shells, including brown muscle, green muscle, and Tahiti shell.

tahiti shell buttons

Tahiti and green and brown muscle shell buttons and buckles from my collection.

solvy fabric heart

This is an example of my class Scrumptious Hearts. You will see a cascade of buttons on the left, and a vintage shisha mirror embroidered on the right.

pink shell buttons

Here a few more bracelets, the first using pink mother of pearl discs, the second using butterfly shaped abalone shell buttons.

vintage buttons and beads

Here is a mixture of all kinds of pink shell and glass buttons, with a few thread and glass beads added in.

Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen

National BUTTON WEEK Day 3!!!

Here are a few images of more buttons!

These are a few necklaces that I have made with buttons.

Antique Autumn Roses- by Christen Brown

This necklace started with the wonderful wrapped metallic gold center piece given to me by a friend. The necklace base is made from silk rouleau and rayon cording wrapped and curled into an entwined pattern. The beads, buttons and extras are attached at random, using a free-form peyote technique.

Umbrian Vintage Ensemble

This is a technique that I call “train tracks”, the buttons are attached through two layers of silk rouleau. The beads and charms are added on after the buttons.

Santa Fe Talisman- necklace

This necklace started with a base made from ruched velvet ribbon. The buttons are made from abalone and muscle shell, jade, turquoise, and other materials. Seed beads and larger beads were used for the dangles.

Cobblestone Collar- Beaded Jewelry Ensemble

This necklace was made using a right-angle weave pattern, the base is comprised of seed beads, pearls, and buttons made from muscle shell.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride by Christen Brown

This necklace started with a base made from ruched velvet ribbon. The buttons are made from glass and metal, seed beads and vintage glass beads and charms were used for the dangles.

Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen

National BUTTON WEEK Day 2!!!

Here are a few images of more buttons!

These projects can be found in my book Beaded Embroidery Stitching.

These are samples of two classes that I have taught. These both use felt as a base, with lace as embellishments, and buttons, glorious buttons!

This is a PDF class called Phat Matt and Friends. Felt is used for the base of the project, embroidery threads and buttons for character.

felt cats

Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen

National BUTTON WEEK!!!

In honor of National Button week I thought that I would share a few of my projects where I used buttons, lots and lots of buttons.

The following two images show that buttons are the queen! And that she graciously allows ribbons, trims and other ephemera to come along for the ride!

buttons, lace, ribbon, charms, steampunk
buttons, charms, ribbon

The following two images are from classes that I have taught at the International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas.

button bracelet, vintage buttons, beads

This is another class that I used to teach, beads and buttons, what more could you ask for?

beaded bracelets

Here are the links for the rest of the week:

Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen