I love buttons and have a small collection I’ve been holding onto for a long time. Some of these are ones purchased in Toronto years ago, while others come from Dressew and Button Button. A small number were scavenged from my mom’s giant tin of buttons, and a collection of sewing fixings given to me by Boris’ mom Anne.

When I was trying to brainstorm a new altered book I pulled out the buttons, along with other materials, and played around with them as I decided on what I wanted to do. I settled on the buttons because the colours and textures appealed to me and I also thought I’d finally tackle some experimenting with sewing on paper.

The irony of choosing so many buttons to work with in this book is that I hate sewing buttons. It’s one of those small tasks I tend to procrastinate, and it takes me FOREVER to get around to reattaching one when a button has fallen off my clothes

Sewing through the pages working well even though the paper was old and brittle and not as forgiving as fabric. I think layering sewing pattern paper on top of the page helped to reinforce it slightly. The piece of paper I chose happened to explain different symbols found in sewing patterns including that of buttons and other fasteners. I added the red threads as a finishing touch, winding them around the three flower buttons and attaching them to the back of the book.

Material used: book, sewing pattern paper, red cotton thread, fifty buttons made with a variety of materials, glue, and gel medium.