icon17

I did have them in old cookie cans still do have some to sort, but this is what I'm doing now.

Katia

I have a lot of buttons, I really do. Unless they are new and on the cards. I have them strung together like others, Then sorted by color into gallon size bags and all of those put into one of those big fabric bin drawers in my cubby shelf. Then if I need a set of buttons i can just get out the right color bag and look through them.

I love the idea of mason jars. I already have a bunch of the old kind with the glass lids or with zinc lids that are full of all the old thread on wooden spools that I have. They look pretty great and are more for decoration then anything. The empty spools went in a gallon jar. I could do the same with buttons, but I am running out of room.

rusty quilter

I use an old tin, like they had in the 50's and love it. When I need a button, I start digging--always fun. Can't believe how expensive the store bought buttons are. It takes 2 minutes to cut them off of old garments.

QuiltinPeg

I have a workshop multi-drawer unit, it was for nails and screws. It hangs nicely on the wall out of the way, but easy to access and I sort by color.

chips88

i put mine in jars so i can see what i have.and lots of them

Quilted Dogs

I like the idea of baby food jars and they stack so nice and u can store them on a desk so u can c them

auntpiggylpn

I didn't really have a button collection until last fall. I was at a local festival, walking through the antique yard sale. I found and old round tin that was exactly like the one that my mother had when I was growing up. My MIL paid the whopping $1 that the vendor wanted for it and now I am constantly on the lookout for buttons at garage sales, flea markets ect. I recently went to a local sewing guilds bi-annual garage sale. They had a large jar with a mixture of vintage and newer buttons in it. The price was $1 a scoop and for every $10 you spent on other items, you got a free scoop. I got lots of nice fabric and a large ziplock bag full of buttons to help fill up my button tin.

pearsonstudio

When I was a child, I loved my mom's button collection probably recycled from the many garments she had sewn. I would line them up like a choir with the different sectiona. I ended up being a music director with a choir of young people rather than buttons . I keep my buttons on the top of a shelf in pint jars that I have put a round of fabric that coordinates with my sewing room under the lid. I take all of my buttons off of their cards and then semi coordinate them in the jars. I have a white jar, modern colors, red, yellow, browns , blues and greens, and two jars of vintage buttons that I have kept from my mom's button box. She passed away last week. I think I may sit down, dump them all out and organize my choir just for the fun of it.

PenniF

Hi Debra...just as an idea, having received a huge container of about a zillion buttons from my grandmother when she passed - last year i made quilted Christmas stocking gifts - and used white, yellow, red, green, silver and gold buttons - overlapping the ones that had shanks on the buttons - stitched to the stockings in a wreath pattern. It used up so many - and family appreciated that the buttons had belonged to Gram.

Quilted Dogs

Here u go, just got all this info on what to do with your buttons and sotring them in old peanut or candy vending machines:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php...type=1&theater