Embroidered Button Bookmarks

For a long now, I've had a pin on Pinterest that shows a variety of bookmarks made from circles of felt, buttons, and paper clips. I've wanted to make them, but haven't taken the time to do any embroidery and crafting.

This morning, I gathered my wool felt bin, embroidery floss holder, and the other supplies needed to make the bookmarks (buttons, needle, scissor, and paper clips).

I cut two larger circles out of one color of felt, one smaller circle out of another color of felt, and found complementary buttons.

First, I sewed the button onto the smaller circle of felt. Then, I used the buttonhole stitch to sew the smaller circle of felt onto one of the larger circles of felt.

I placed both of the larger circles of felt on top of one another and sewed them together using the buttonhole stitch. As I was almost done sewing, I inserted a large paperclip into the opening and then embroidered the rest the circles of felt.

The paperclip does move up and down a bit, so one way to fix that would have been to sew the top of the paper clip onto one of the larger pieces of felt.

This was an easy project to do that used up some scraps of wool felt that I had on hand.

Fabric Covered Button Thumb Tacks

Fabric Covered Button Thumb Tacks
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

Olivia has a new corkboard in her room and I wanted to make some pretty thumbtacks for her. Her favorite color is blue, so I made her a set of thumbtacks.

These are an extra set I made for my shop, Harvest Moon by Hand. I made fabric-covered buttons and then affixed them to a tack. They are 3/4" metal buttons covered with 100% cotton fabric.

More sets of thumb tacks will be added soon.

Four Handmade Fabric Covered Buttons

Four Handmade Fabric Covered Buttons
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

My daughters and I have been enjoying making fabric-covered buttons recently.

These are four buttons that I recently made from two different cotton fabrics. They would be good for replacing plastic buttons on clothing, as special embellishments for a knitted or crocheted item, crafting, or for pontail or clip holders.

This set, as well as other sets of buttons, are available in my shop, Harvest Moon by Hand.

Buttons for Crafting or Math Activities

Melon-Inspired Buttons
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

Went through my button jars and created this melon-inspired button collection in pink, green, and white that's available in my shop, Harvest Moon by Hand. The colors remind me of summer, watermelons, and picnics.

With over 75 buttons to choose from, you could use them for a variety of projects: sewing, quilting, ATCs, ACEOs, scrapbooking, art journaling, jewelry...the possibilities are endless.

Buttons also are wonderful, tactile objects to use with math activities with children. Here are some ideas:

- match and sort the buttons (by shape, color, number of holes in the button, texture, pattern)

- addition and subtraction

- count and skip count (by 2, 3, 5, 10)

- create pattern series (green, green, pink, white, green, green, pink, white)

- introduce the concept of greater than, less than, and equal

- make different graphs using groups of buttons

- guess the number of buttons in jars

There are so many ways to use buttons in math. Having something tangible...something a child can manipulate...can make all the difference in helping introduce a new concept or comprehending a concept with which a child is struggling.