Customer Reviews

Button and Stitch: Supercute Ways to Use Your Button Stash

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fun little book with many options for using up old or new buttons. I'd recommend this book whether you are a button lover or have tons of buttons to use or not though.

Many of the projects are actually things I've been wanting to make (like pins, a camera case, pincushions) and/or find patterns for and haven't gotten around to buying or looking them up. Because of this, it's almost like getting two books in one. Photos are clear and the patterns seem easy to follow.

I really like this book, at my first week with it I finished the camera case (the real reason I bought it) and I loved it. Detailed instructions and easy to understand to people with basic knowledge of sewing.

It's really a wonderful collection, the projects are all pretty easy, but require different skill sets. There are 24 projects total covering a wide range of techniques.
The basic materials explains what you'll need for most of the projects, and buttons by type describes types of vintage buttons but having a great vintage button supply isn't necessary for the projects in the book.
The first project is an easy pearly button frame that uses a strong glue and buttons on a purchased blank frame.
The final project in the book is a lovely soldered ring that would be a great use of buttons from your grandmother's stash or very special buttons.
The projects in between are sewn, felted and wired. My favorites are the recycled sweater handwarmers which use a used sweater to create pretty fitted mitts with cute button accents and are very adaptable. I'm hitting the thrift store today for sweaters to use for this project. The pincushion-topped button jar is so cute I can't resist it, and the kanzashi-style hair clip.
Lovely book. The projects are varied enough that I found a few things I loved in it, and so did my 14 yo daughter.

The button jar. Does everyone have a mason full of random, rounded gems? Or is it only me? It's not just me. To my relief (and surprise), Button and Stitch fully addresses makes brilliant use of my decade-long accumulation. Rather than toss them, Kristen Rask suggests low-skill, handmade gifts like a button-laminated picture frame or button-studded photo album.

Heavy duty projects, like Rask's fabric collage jacket, require sewing proficiency but utilize dozens of colorful buttons and scrap fabric to create a fanciful, personalized garment. Others, like her camera-shaped camera case or a multi-button ring, offer a clever way to practice burgeoning craft skills. Many projects make good use of other lightly used objects you may already own, a shrunken sweater, glass condiment jars, an ex-boyfriend's tie. Photo-heavy guides let you glide seamlessly from the materials list to project completion with a pictorial reference at every step. With this level of inspiration at hand, I may not have a button jar much longer.

Summary: 5 stars for content and -1 star for integrity

Okay, here is how I started my 5 star review...

One of my big frustrations with a lot of craft books out there is that the projects are so simple and geared towards a beginning sewer who has never heard of a blog. I like this book because there are a ton of techniques in there that I have never tried before, but Kristen is so inspired in her cross-crafting that it makes me want to pick up a crochet hook or try adding lace embellishments. Some of the projects I don't like a whole lot (like the button picture frame I've seen before and the Layered Applique Clutch is just sloppily stitched)) but the ones I like (The camera case is genius, the Fabric Collage Jacket is amazing...

THEN, I realized that all of the projects I really liked, were not designed by Kristen. It doesn't change the fact that the projects are fun and a great mix, but I liked the contributor's projects more than hers and she only gives them a small snippet of credit in the back while her author photo is on the flap and in the back and she has a nice full page all about her. Both she and the publisher would have been better to say that the book was compiled by Kristen. I guess it feels a lot like name-dropping to me and I felt a bit duped.