Vintage Fabric-Covered Buttons and Belts

Fabric-covered buttons and belts are a staple of vintage fashion. In the early 19th century, machines were designed to create fabric-covered buttons. By the 20th century, fabric-covered buttons were all the rage.

In the Family: A Fabric-Covered Button and Belt Making Business
My great grandmother Mary was a professional seamstress, and as she saw fabric-covered buttons and belts growing in popularity, she decided to purchase two industrial button makers, one from Maxant and the other from Defiance, to add a special touch to the garments she created and to keep up with the fashions.

My great-grandmother Mary, the professional seamstress. She's got a little smirk going on here. I think she was pretty sassy.

Fast forward some 60 or so years to me, vintage-sewing obsessed. I had been buying Maxant belt-making kits online when my father casually mentioned to me I might find some of Mary's supplies buried somewhere in the garage. I was overcome with excitement when I discovered that "some" meant both of her industrial button makers as well as thousands of original supplies, catalogs, and instructions. I actually started crying.

My Vintage Button and Belt-Making Supplies

Drumroll, please! I really couldn't be more thrilled to share this with you, readers.

Ta da! Aren't they just beautiful! I have a little work station in my garage. I opted to paint the garage sea foam green and fill it with cross stitch from my grandmother. I like a bit of prettiness around me while I work, as I'm sure you can tell from my sewing room. 

These look all nicely displayed in mason jars now, but believe you me, they didn't start out that way. I had hundreds of little cardboard boxes full of these tiny treasures to sort through and organize.

These are her original catalogs that she used to order her supplies from. 

And the original instructions! Thank goodness for those! 

Making or Purchasing Your Own 

I'm guessing you all aren't lucky enough to fall into the same tub of honey that I have. If you're interested in using fabric-covered buttons and belts in your sewing projects, there's two options. 

1. Handmake Your Own

There are kits that you can use to assemble these by hand. I have to assemble the belts by hand as well, so we're all in the same boat there.

Maxant Belt Buckle Kit
Beltmaking 101 from Casey's Elegant Musings

Dritz Covered Button Kit
Fabric-Covered Button Tutorial from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing

2. Order Them from Pat, The Button Lady

Pat Mahoney is the proprietress of Pat's Custom Buttons and Belts. She doesn't have a website, but you can reach her the "old fashioned" way. You can either call her or mail her $5 and she will mail you back a catalog. 

Pat's Custom Buttons and Belts

(209) 369-5410

537 York Street

P.O. Box 335

Lodi, CA 95241

I actually wrote Pat a letter when I discovered the supplies and she wrote me back and then we chatted on the phone. She's been extremely kind and helpful to me while I am sorting out what exactly it is that I have!

I manage to put a fabric-covered belt or button on just about everything I make now. Can you blame me?! I love using supplies with a family history, and I love little details like that these that can really make an outfit special.

Fabric-covered buttons on my Hawaiian shirtwaist dress. 

How I Started Sewing

Today I have some throwback finished projects for you! I hope you enjoy hearing how I got started sewing and will share in comments below how you got your start.

I've been dabbling in sewing since I was a tiny tot. I loved to embroider all manner of things when I was little. My grandma took care of us during the day and sometimes she would let me stitch things on her machine, too.  My interest in vintage started equally as young, so it's a happy combination for me.

But I didn't really get into sewing until I was 12-years-old. It all begin with a pair of pajama pants. These pajama pants in fact...

Behold! The first garment I ever sewed. 

  

I remember cutting out the pattern and not understanding how it was supposed to fit together, so I raced upstairs to my bedroom and got out a pair of pajama pants to inspect. I was hooked from that moment on. 

The Pajama Pants Years

After that, I went through a serious pajama pant craze that lasted well through high school. I'm pretty sure every friend and family member received a pair of pajama pants from me, and some were truly atrocious looking. I started getting fancy and embroidering messages inside the waistband of the pants, too, like, "Happy Birthday!" I sewed matching pajama pants for my family.

My parents and I in Radio Flyer-print pajama pants I made. I don't know how my brother managed to be spared here. 

Sew All the Things!

After that, I started sewing pretty much everything. Home decor things like throw pillows, quilts (although I didn't yet understand the proper way to quilt), appliqued pillow cases, purses galore, novelty items there were jokes between friends, and eventually clothes I actually wore out in public.

A skirt I made out of t-shirts. I'm making my first trip to college here!

I did a lot of experimenting and winging it.  I am completely self-taught, and only in the past few years have started devouring sewing books and getting engaged in the online sewing community to get more skilled in a craft I love very much. I am still hooked!

Here's to many more happy years of sewing!

Why Rosie Wednesday?

Rosie and Wednesday are the names of my Janome sewing machines.

I purchased them with the money from a summer job when I was 17 and quickly learned that they had personalities all their own. Plus, I am fond of giving names to inanimate objects.

Rosie 

Rosie is named after Rosie from the Jetson's. Rosie on the Jetson's is warm and helpful, although sometimes stern. That pretty much sums up how I feel about Rosie the sewing machine. I had been sewing on a broken down Singer of my mother's from the 1970s, so I felt like I had just gotten a helpful robot to help me in my sewing endeavors. 

Rosie and Rosie. 

Wednesday

Wednesday is my serger, and she is named after Wednesday Addams. At first, my serger had the infuriating habit of coming unthreaded while I was sewing. It would also break and throw needles. Given this tendency  which I often viewed to be rather sinister and cruel as it always came at the worst time in a project, and the fact that sergers have knives for trimming the fabric as it goes, I decided to name my serger after the macabre and solemn Wednesday from the Addams family. 

Turns out I just needed to learn the right needle size for the fabric I was sewing, how to adjust the tension, and how to properly thread it. Even still, I'm convinced my serger has an evil streak. 

Wednesday and Wednesday.

Happy Valentine's Day!