buttons – Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

September 13, 2013

hassock re-upholstery part 3: stuffing, stapling, and tufted buttons of doom

This is the fun part! I filled my hassock with anything and everything, as long as it was soft… and then I got to play with the staple gun!

I started the filling process by laying down a large sheet of thin fleece interfacing. I wanted a “buffer layer” since my wool has some stretch tendencies and this thin layer of fleece helped guarantee that the outside wouldn’t turn out lumpy.

I started by using polyfil to fill in the corners to make sure they’d be well-defined.

Next, I filled the cushion with fleece scraps, as you can see in the top picture. I picked this for multiple reasons.
1. I had a giant bag of the stuff, since I like to save it to stuff arthurs, and I had a ton of scraps from making all ten of my pink stars
2. It’s free and it’s soft
3. It was something I would have thrown away, so I was being un-wasteful
4. I wanted it to be something squishier/rounder than just a block of foam, since my foam fit-test was a very unexciting, flat cushion.
5. Most importantly… it’s dense enough that I knew it would keep its shape and last over time, unlike Poly-fil or foam that can sag with age if you aren’t really careful at the beginning!

So fleece scraps formed what would be the top layer of “squish” in my cushion.

Next came a huge amount of these foam french fries! These are from that super cool packing foam that is about 3″ thick but comes perforated, so you can tear apart what you need to protect your item during shipping. Even though it’s packing foam, it’s very high quality. I had a whole sheet of this perforated foam and I just tore each french fry away from its neighbor to make this mountain of squishy goodness.

Click on to see all the staple-gunning and tufted button adventures ahead!
(more…)

July 14, 2012

crafty desktop wallpapers: vintage buttons

I mentioned in another button-filled post that I would love to wallpaper a portion of my future studio with button cards. I think it would be super: a half-wall, maybe, or even a border around the ceiling. I try and use buttons in my projects, but some are just too pretty to be used.

However, there is one way to display my buttons and still use them later: desktop wallpaper! I can be surrounded by my favorite pretty buttons, and they’re free to use on my next project.

So I’ve made up a few crafty desktop backgrounds, and of course buttons as pretty as these are best shared! Enjoy!

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Check back because there will certainly be more to come! Unless, of course, I get tired of playing with buttons…

April 2, 2012

a button surprise

On Saturday, I had the privilege of attending my cousin Katie’s baby shower. It was wonderful to see my grandma, my aunts, my cousins, and of course Katie, who despite her large belly and sore feet, was full of smiles and excitement as she opened parcels filled with tiny dresses and shoes.

blue & white stripe buttons

After the festivities, I was hugging aunts all around and getting ready to leave, when Aunt Jeanie said she had a box of buttons that I might like. Buttons? There’s a good chance that I like those.

“They aren’t very exciting,” she said, “but I figured I’d give them to you before giving them away.”

pink buttons, yellow bug buttons

I am familiar with unexciting buttons. Usually when I happen upon unexciting buttons, they’re all shades of black, gray, and white – spares from old coats and shirts, dangling by a “don’t lose me!” thread. I’m sure you can relate. Those boxes are what I consider the less exciting button boxes, but they usually harbor some treasures despite their appearances.

golden yellow buttons, white decorative buttons (the gold ones are my favorite!)