A few months ago I saw a killer tutorial on fabric covered buttons from my number one favorite crafty gal - How About Orange. I think I purchased 30 boxes of buttons to cover (from J. Caroline Creative) within 5 minutes of reading her post (I was over-the-top excited about this). I proceeded to make tons of thumb tacks and fridge magnets (if you want some let me know - seriously). I think I have about 25 sets of 6 - in every color and pattern you could ever want.
CHA Summer was just a few weeks ago and I started seeing 1 inch fabric covered buttons - All Over The Place. Being the crafty Lolly that I am.. I knew I could make them with the gargantuan supply I already had. So below is my take (on the already fab idea from How About Orange) with the LollyChops twist.
Step 1
The nice thing about making these, is that you can literally use fabric scraps. Once you have made a few yourself and see how much fabric you need to make them, you will never throw fabric away again. It's horrible actually - cause you end up with little piles of ugly looking scraps all over the place. The other nice thing about needing only small amounts, is that you can hit the fabric stores and get loads of different fabric for a good price. Just remember to go when they are not too busy or the counter lady might hurl a fabric bolt at you as you roll up the counter with your 50 bolts stacked ever-so-neatly in both of your shopping baskets.
Step 2
Once you have your scraps picked out, you can cut out a template from the back of the package and use that to make the perfect sized fabric circles. I have been sticking to size 20 (wedding gown size) and size 36 (fridge magnet size) buttons. You can get the kind that do not have the little button thingy on the back (it's not that hard to remove - but if you can - get them without it and save your self some plier time). Each box comes with a plastic jabber fabric poker device. Once you have a few of these you can actually look for fabric covered buttons in bulk packages (J. Caroline Creative sells those as well - I found that out on my - 2nd order with them :D
Step 3
I have so many plastic poker devices that I was able to set up the entire process in one picture. If you need some plastic poker devices - let me know (I can mail you some with the thumb tacks). So here we go.
1) Template from the back of the box-o-buttons. 2) Fabric circle cut using aforementioned template. 3) Plastic poker (bottom). 4) Poker bottom, fabric circle and button to cover stacked and ready to go. 5) Fabric pushed in. 6) Fabric tucked in nicely. 7) Button back covering the tucked in fabric. 8) Using the poker device to smash the whole thing together.. and finally. Eureka. We have a fabric covered button!
So what do you do next?
Since I did not need any more thumb tacks or fridge magnets - I decided to use my fabric covered buttons as flower centers. I figured they would be a nice change from the regular button centers you see all over the place (well they are still buttons - just not the kind with the holes).
If you come up with some other uses for these (and get excited and purchase hundreds like I did) let me know! I would love to see what other people are doing with these fabulous finds!
