On Tips and Tea on Tuesdays, I will cover a topic and hopefully provide you with some tips that will be helpful! And just as an afterthought, tea may occasionally be a cup of Joe! And in honor of National Button week March 13-19, 2023 I thought that I would share a few of my favorite buttons, and buttons, and lots and lots of buttons.

Tea today is just a cup of JO, though my cup is fitting as I want to talk about Hats and to be more specific, novelty “hat” shaped buttons. I think that these are some of the funnest buttons I have in my collection.

Well Hello Dolly: This piece started these two printed doll panels, which came in a little gift box. The two ladies, Alice and Jeanne, were supposed to be cut out, stitched, and stuffed. But I couldn’t do this because I fell in love with the printed floral sections on the panels, which would have been discarded, so instead, I just cut the panels into blocks. I pieced the blocks with vintage floral jacquard ribbons from the 1940’s, along with narrow satin, picot edge, and novelty print ribbons. I decided there was never going to be a more perfect venue for my hat and flower button collection! Other embellishments include vintage celluloid pins, leaf trim, and ribbonwork flowers.

Measured Party Foul: A machine quilted base of pieces of left-over fabrics and a gifted bag full of selvage edge strips becomes the back-ground for a collection of whimsical friends. An old tape measure was used for the body of each bird, with fun googly eyes, rickrack legs, laundry pin wings, shoe beads and buttons, and more hat buttons! Other embellishments are rickrack and ribbonwork flowers, vintage buttons, glass mushrooms, vintage tin pins, and metal charms.

Tips: Where to Find the Good Stuff

• For vintage items like the “hat” shaped buttons, search on eBay, you will have a broad range of vendors that specialize in vintage items, as well as the novice seller, who is “de-stashing”.
• Check your local thrift and charity shop stores, they may have a sewing and craft section.
• Check to see if there is a vintage swap meet in your area, sometimes these are held monthly, or yearly.
• For the newer items like the hat charms or shoe button, bead, or charms, check your local craft store, or favorite on-line source.
• And be patient, don’t be discouraged if you don’t find these items right away, this collection took me several years to acquire.

Happy tea drinking and stitching to you! ~Christen