Buttons

I've been playing today with some brass rings and some fabric covered buttons.  I had two sizes of ring and made a few different buttons.  I started with Dorset Buttons, they are the wheel button on the extreme left of the picture, basically you cover the brass ring using buttonhole stitch and then make threads running across the ring to make a wheel and then weave the thread under and around the spindles of the wheel to complete the button. In all these buttons when covering a brass ring in buttonhole stitch make sure that you have enough thread to completely cover the ring.  The little bouquets are made by over sewing the brass ring with buttonhole stitch and then using a flower thread or similar to make flower stems that move across the ring, using the top set of flower stems stitch french knots and use beads to make the flowers of the bouquet.  Finishing with a little bow, that I secured using a tiny blob of PVA.  I think they would make very pretty little brooches. The other buttons below, are again using a brass ring and buttonhole stitch, insert a tiny piece of hand made felt that is embellished using a felting needle and tiny wisps of felt.  Still a definite technophobe I decided to try putting a piece of inkjet printing silk through my printer having first taken pictures of a pile of buttons, I liked the idea of a button covered button.  I recommend the Inkjet Silk by Jacquard as being very easy to use and gives great results.