Give new life to old buttons

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Threads Magazine, contributor

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I recently acquired a few hundred old buttons. Most of the buttons were in perfect condition, but several were discolored. I tried to clean the stained buttons by soaking them in bleach overnight, but that only whitened some of them.

Next, I tried painting the yellowed buttons with nail polish. The nail polish hid the discoloration nicely and created some very interesting results. I painted three “test” buttons with two coats of nail polish. Then, I sewed them to a scrap of fabric and washed them with a load of towels. The washing machine did not harm the polished finish at all, but after the buttons came out of the dryer, they stuck slightly to the fabric. I recommend that you air dry garments sewn with this type of button. Now I have lots of new-looking buttons, and I can be creative with the wide variety of nail-polish colors available today.

-- Kristine Kadlec, Los Angeles, California


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Comments (2)

lucy54 writes: This is marvelous, I'll do the same I have lots of old button I will now look out for them :). Thank you so much for the tip :).
Posted: 10:48 am on May 9th

naughtymonkeys writes: How cool! Thanks for this, I have loads of buttons that could use a facelift, but I never would have thought of nail polish, awesome!
Posted: 2:42 pm on March 13th

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