artful thursdays #24....easy no-sew embroidered button tutorial

i am so excited to get back to my artful thursday projects. today my tutorial is how to make super easy no-sew embroidered buttons.

as i was digging through the vintage sewing supplies at one of my regular antique store stops i found this prims, cover a button kit. inside there are four sizes of buttons to cover. apparently they are washable and rustproof. splendid.
it is so easy you don't even need a tool. and just in case you didn't find a little cover a button kit do not fret, i found a similar button kit at joanns.
i like the buttons with the little teeth on the back.



it all started with an old embroidered pillow case. i had cut off the hand crocheted trim to use and couldn't quite discard the little embroidered daisies, so i made a little covered button and liked it so much.


i started looking through my old linens for bits of embroidery i could use.
there it was, the perfect little hankie. stained and torn but with lovely bullion roses and chrysanthemums hand embroidered to the thin cotton.



step 1. wrap your embroidered fabric over the button form to position your design.


step 2. cut out a circle of scrap fabric to test the size then lay your scrap pattern over your embroidery. position, pin, and cut out. my hankie was so thin i used a circle of plain cotton to back the embroidery so the silver button wouldn't show through.


step 3. tuck the circle ends all around the back of the button pulling the fabric taught and positioning your design so you like it.


step 4. place the back over the loop shank and press until the button snaps closed. after the backing is in place you can't take it off and reposition so make sure your edges are smooth and you like how the stitching is centered.

i will never know who stitched this gorgeous piece of embroidery, but i love that i found a way to use it a little bit longer...

happy thursday, julie

a love story...

yes, well you might ask where i have been these last couple of weeks. last month my oldest daughter announced she would be getting married in 3 weeks. the wedding was planned for april (they have been dating for 4 years!) but the two of them decided they wanted to be married before he swore in to the marines in 21 days. i went into shock at the announcement. actually it can be done, pulling off a wedding in 3 weeks... but i don't recommend it...

i love this photo of the two of them, it does tell a love story doesn't it. they are blissfully happy together now and they thought the wedding was perfect. it rained on the lovely garden reception. drops puddled around the frosting on the wedding cake and the tablecloths were damp. still the couple was glowing. at one point in the evening i saw him twirling her around with her dress billowing. i just caught a glimpse of their faces, they were laughing as the warm summer rain fell on them. how else do you start a life together?

its just that she was ready to go, and i wasn't quite ready to let her...


my sister katherine had her camera and was taking photos, i just love this one of the gorgeous green ruffled shoes and the bride bouquet. a mix of long stemmed roses and english roses from her grandmothers flower garden wrapped in long strands of silk ribbon.


i ordered these gorgeous sugar hydrangeas from sweet petal bakery. 100 sherbet colored flowers and pale mint colored leaves were dusted with edible shimmer and arranged on a the buttercream frosting cake. they were gorgeous and the cake was delicious. a little summer rain never hurt a good cake....


these are a couple more photos we used to plan the decorations and flowers. this photo was from a site all about flowers...


this photo was on etsy, can't find it now. it was from a seller that had baskets full of vintage tablecloths i guess.


flickr always has gorgeous color collections!



we didn't have time to order fancy invitations so we bought two boxes of these pretty printed blank cards from paper pigeon and set up the text on the computer and had them printed at our copy shop. the paper store had precut photo tissues to put on top of the photo and we added a little insert in a glassine envelope and tied the bundle together with vintage string.



so now it is back to our regularly scheduled life. there is now one less plate at the dinner table and one empty room downstairs.

yet in the way life continues to surprise and delight me, where before we had one now there are two.
julie