Have you ever made your own buttons?

I made one several years ago, when the only haberdashery nearby didn’t have a button of the right colour for a skirt I was making.  I used Fimo.  I rolled a small piece into a ball and then flattened it, making holes before it was baked.

I decided it might be fun to make buttons for the dress I’m just cutting out.  (Follow me on Instagram if you want to see more about that!)  I was just going to cover buttons, but then I saw this post on Pinterest:

It sounded interesting, so I thought I’d have a go.  I printed my dress design and used that, but it didn’t work.  The instructions say to use a laser printer – our colour printer’s an inkjet, so maybe that’s why.  So I got the design photocopied.  It still didn’t work!  Perhaps it only works with black and white prints.  I may try sometime, but I wanted my buttons to match the dress!  So, back to the drawing board.

This time, I made them with plain Fimo.  The one I made before was fairly thick – fine for the skirt, but maybe not for a cotton frock.  Also, I needed about 8 and I thought it might be difficult to make them an even thickness making them as I did before.  So this is how I made them.

How to make buttons

Roll out the Fimo and use a cutter to cut the buttons.  Mine are heart-shaped, because that was the only cutter I had which was about the right size!

Use a thick needle to make holes.  I pushed the needle through the clay on the kitchen work surface, but then pushed it into a sponge to get the hole big enough without bending the button too much.

Put the buttons on a baking tray (on greaseproof paper or baking parchment to make them easier to remove) and bake according to your clay’s instructions.  Make sure they're flat before you bake them!

Sew them onto your garment!

I’m hoping I haven’t made them too thin this time!  If I have, I’ll have to make some more.  When they’re sewn on my dress (which isn’t made yet!), I’ll put a picture here, so you can see them in action.