I found that I never published this back in May of 2021.
I used to do button crafts for craft shows. Necklaces, critters with a string of button legs and my favorite button crafts were pins with a collage of buttons and lace with a few beads for embellishments.
Even when I began to make dolls I still sold pins with buttons because they were fun to make. So I ordered pounds of buttons in all sorts of colors. Then I sorted them by color, putting the buttons in divided embroidery floss boxes dividing shades in to separate compartments. So I have pounds and pounds of buttons! But since I love Victorian things I made and sold pins with white buttons the most.
My white buttons were first divided by buttons with holes and buttons with shanks, which are the little loops on the back so you can't see the thread from the front of the button. Then I had to divide the buttons by shades of white -- bright white, pail white, shiny white, dull and flat white and then there's the cream buttons that fade into yellow. Recently I've divided my white buttons even further. Since most buttons came in bulk matching buttons weren't typically together. So, I grouped buttons that match. Each group went into a little baggie, whether there were only 2 that matched or a larger bag held 50, and then there were also unmatched buttons. My favorite bag is for the antique buttons, buttons made of shells and the unusual ones. I'll be saving that bag to only pull from on special projects.
