My Buttons

 After teaching at the recent Jamestown Clothing Conference, someone asked me for pictures of my buttons.  I've posted about the research I've done, but only a few of the buttons I've made.  It's about time I fixed that.  

As part of my class, I put together a button sample board to show the variety of buttons between 1550 and 1650, and to make sure that I can actually make them in approximately the right size and the right materials.

So, with no further ado, here are some of my buttons!

(first photo taken by Jane Cadieux)

Jamestown Clothing Conference

We made it.  After Covid delays, the Jamestown Clothing Conference was back.  Chris was able to attend this year (due to my awesome sister watching the kids for the weekend!), and I was a presenter.  It was amazing to be back and to be a part of it, even if there were a handful Covid cases announced in the days after.

The hubs and I attended the natural dyeing workshop and jack of plate workshop at the beginning of the conference, and I got to tag along to the hat making workshop as well!  It was full weekend, especially considering it feels like I've forgotten how to 'people' after the last few years.

I don't know that I have any major epiphanies to share this time around, but I was rather focused on the button workshop I taught (4 times over 2 days).

This conference will always be a special place for me.  It helped me re-find my passion for historical clothing.  I'm so glad we were able to make it.

Handout for Jamestown Historical Clothing Conference

 I'm looking forward to the upcoming conference at Jamestown next weekend.  The rising Covid numbers make it a bit scary, but I'm still planning to go masked.  

For the Making Buttons workshop I'll be teaching, we'll be making two different button types: Evenweave and Buttonhole.  You can download the class handout for reference.

A Pair of Pants

Back in November, I made a pair of pants for a friend.  He had some specific requirements, like the size of the cuff opening needed to accommodate his armor.  Because of this, I convinced him to try a cuffless style.  I'm pretty please with how they turned out.  

The pants are made of linen and all finishing details (trim, buttons and buttonholes, etc.) are done by hand.  He also requested an adjustable waist, so I hand made some eyes to run a tie through in the back.

Banners

We're interested in making a banner that would be appropriate to the 16th century.  So, I started researching to see what shapes and sizes I could find.  Square flags seem pretty common for heraldic displays, but there are many other shapes as well.  I have a growing collection of pins, but will highlight the different types here.

I pulled this image from a video on "The State Funeral and Heraldry of Mary Queen of Scots", but haven't been able to find more details about the image.  I suspect it lives somewhere in the Westminster Abbey Library.  It is an inventory sketch of the flags and banners from the funeral and shows square flags and a pennant.

My other favorite image that I've found is a pedigree from 1599 which celebrates the marriage of Robert Sackville to Margaret Howard and happens to include some flags and standards showing the proper display of heraldry.

Basic Banner and Flag Types:

Pole on Top with Dags

These are seen most commonly in a religious context, and similar shapes are still seen in churches to this day. 

Square Flags

These are often heraldic in design and may have been stiffened as they are often depicted looking quite rigid.  Some examples are see in the image above for Mary Queen of Scotts.

Rectangular Flags

These generally don't look as stiff or rigid and the square flags.  While they often have heraldic symbols on them, they are not as structured in design as the square flags.

Pennants

Long tapering triangles that ripple nicely in a breeze can be seen in a few different forms.  Some are quite narrow and very long (see the ship in the Ommegang painting of 1615; image 17 of 89).  Some taper to a single point while others split into multiple tails.  They can be quite large as seen in another of the Ommegang painting where there is one taller than a horse and twice as long!

Stomachers

 I've been wondering how early stomachers were used.  There are 17th century examples in museums, but were they used in the 16th century?  I'm not sure there is a definitive answer, but The Pragmatic Costumer argues that they came into fashion in the 1590's.  It's worth a read!

Buttons, Buttons, Everywhere

Here are some things to get you started with button making for 1550-1650.  I will mention that metal and glass buttons were also used, but here I will focus on passementerie or textile worked buttons.

The complete class notes / slides from the button class I taught at Jamestown are available at the links above and provide the best overview of the button types and what's appropriate for each.

I highly recommend checking out Gina Barrett, particularly her book Buttons: A Passementerie Workshop Manual which has the best instructions I've found for how to make buttons.  She also runs a Facebook group, Gina-B Silkworks Group where you can see what others are making and she even has a Youtube channel with how-to videos.  My only complaint is that she doesn't provide a lot of details on the historical aspects, like what buttons are appropriate for a given time period (though I have heard she is working on another book that may cover this).

In order to understand the historical context, I've been collecting a list of buttons from 1550-1650 and as many pictures of them as I can. I also collect how-to illustrations for button making.

I generally group the buttons for 1550-1650 into 4 main categories: Turks Head, Ribbed, Woven and Buttonhole.

Turks Head

My chevron / turks head category includes buttons based on a foundational turks head knot.  They are the most common, though most of the examples that remain to us are fancy, upper-class specimens.  I find these the most difficult to make. 

They are generally made over a wood core and mostly spherical in shape.  See pics.

Ribbed

The next most common are the ribbed buttons.  This category includes many variations and are relatively easy to make.  Though the techniques to make them may differ some, each are characterized by noticeable ribs from the top to the bottom of the button.

They are generally made over a wood core and mostly spherical in shape.  See pics.

Woven

The third major grouping are the woven buttons.  This includes even-weave and basket-weave.

They are generally made over a wood core and shaped like a flat dome.  See pics.

Buttonhole

These buttons are not as common, but I still found 5 examples. They have a foundational wrapping to anchor the buttonhole stitches.

They are generally made over a wooden core and mostly spherical in shape.  See pics.