A Little Girls Button Lesson From the 40's!

This box is adorable, what's in it is priceless!


What fun learning to sew with these sweet cards!



Wouldn't the little girl in YOUR life love these!




Several years ago a friend & I started a small antique business
together in an antique mall, we spent our Saturdays scouring the
area for estate sales(our favorite), or good garage sales! We’d
heard about a sale in an older stately part of town, that we were
looking forward too. When we arrived an hour or so early, we had
to wait in a long line with all the other treasure Hunters!

Finally it was our turn to go in, with a small group, however,
once inside we found many people still filled each room. We
quickly could see it was like a dream come true for us, it was
FULL of the most beautiful antiques. It was as if time had stood
still for this house, it had been closed up and left exactly like
it was, when the family had lived there.(It seemed as if it had
been from another time period)!

There was very beautiful period furniture, exquisite glassware
and a houseful of vintage odds and ends that made our heads
swim with ‘GLEE’! It was still hard to move around, because the
house was so full of people! I was able to find a few things,
but I felt driven to go through the whole house to see everything!
I usually loved going through kitchens the most, because we
specialized in the 50’s look in our antique space, with lots
of kitchen gadgets, but I couldn’t even begin to get into
this kitchen.

I slowly worked my way around to the grand Stairway and up
to the upper floor to see what I could find! I went into a
little girls bedroom that seemed to hold her treasured belongings
as if she’d be returning soon! This child seemed to have
everything a little girl could want. I was excited to find
some children’s kitchen utensils that were amazing and in
brand new condition, (I’d started a kitchen cupboard for my
little granddaughter and this would be something I’d keep for her).

Back out in the hallway I noticed a Small room at the end of
the hall, I made my way into it and was totally taken back at
what I found! It was a sewing room, full of beautiful vintage
sewing items! There were yards and yards of vintage fabric still
on the fabric Boards covering shelves, lots and lots of pin
cushion’s full of every kind of needle you could imagine, colorful
thimbles, rickrack’s and beautiful trim in every color imaginable
and BUTTONS, it was unlike anything I’d ever seen before! I had
my bag I carried for estate sales and quickly filled it up with
beautiful yardage, a pin cushion and a sweet box that belonged
to the little girl of the house, it was the sweetest box from the
40’s with picture cards with buttons sewn onto each card, the
buttons were all shapes, sizes and colors decorating each picture
card! I imagined her Mom being excited to find something fun to
help her teach her young daughter how to sew, it was obvious the
women of this splendid home loved to sew!

There were many helpers at this sale and they were all
wonderfully friendly older women who all knew the owner! I
finally met her and was truly inspired by her, a Catholic
Sister with the help of all her Sister friends! She had been
the little girl of the house and shared with me the age of
the darling kitchen utensils and of her button cards!

So Janet, if you read this, I thank you for sharing and I want you
to know my second Granddaughter is playing with your childhood
utensils and loving them and I still keep your button cards as
one of my most prized possessions! On that particular day,all
of the items I found, (except for the fabric, that a friend talked
me out of)are with me still.

If you love buttons like I do, please check out the wonderful
button Market! All Buttoned Up!
You'll be pleasantly surprised at what this group of artisan's can do
with buttons!