Liberty buttons RIP

Recently I have been thinking about buttons. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you will know that I love buttoned sofas, in particular this Finn Juhl Poeten sofa.

However, this time my thoughts have been preoccupied with different buttons, specifically six of the most beautiful, sparkly buttons you have ever seen, which I bought at Liberty, and with which I was going to change the buttons of this bland and boring Uniqlo cardigan to increase its latent style potential.

I bought them about six weeks ago, but it's only now that I have finally accepted the sad realisation that they are lost, never to be seen again. I last saw them on my kitchen table, and I have searched everywhere, but I have not seen them since. It is one of my great sadnesses of 2008, especially as they cost more than the cardigan I was going to sew them on.

My next reawakening of button consciousness was when I saw a girl on the street wearing a tweed hat, customised with lots of different-coloured buttons. Had my inner Sartorialist kicked in, I would have run outside and photographed her, but my creativity was sadly compromised by the fact it was too cold outside, and I was quite comfortable where I was with my mulled wine.

Still, I was inspired enough to steal the idea for myself, even though the hat-wearer I saw was much cooler than me, and much better at pulling off the overall look.

Take one Accessorise hat.

Sew on a random selection of buttons from your mother's button box. I would like buttons which are more shiny and sparkly, and I also would like to have more buttons than this, but I lost momentum (perhaps it's the post-traumatic stress from losing my Liberty buttons kicking in.)

There are lots of cheap buttons for sale on Etsy, ripe for action, like these bargain vintage buttons.

I also love vintage buttons on their original card, like these ones. I would like to buy a few sets and group them together as a cheap artwork option in a box frame.

I also like the idea of these vintage button bouquets.

In fact, about six months ago, I showed an aunt of mine a photo of a similar button bouquet on Etsy, and she made me these for Christmas, albeit with old clip-on earrings from (in her words) 'flashy American broads.'

At the minute I have arranged them in an old milk bottle, but they also would look great arranged in old pepper shakers.

In fact, for Christmas my mum received a solitary pepper shaker from her sister, without its fellow salt shaker, which we thought was a bit strange. It is only in the last few days that I found the photo of the original button bouquet I showed my aunt, which was arranged in an identical glass shaker to the one she sent. So we have concluded that there must have been a mix-up in the Christmas present wrapping.

Finn Juhl photos via Flickr here and here. Photo of milk glass salt and pepper shakers from here.