It is cold outside. Actually, it is cold inside too. So it should come as no surprise that my thoughts, and my creativity, should be all about staying warm.

Slippers.

Really warm and very comfy slippers.

What else do you think about when it gets cold?

Last year, I accidentally washed my favourite wool scarf. And I accidentally felted it. Problem? I thought so at the time, but really, it was an opportunity waiting to happen. Every year I buy another pair (or two) of slippers, and every year I hate that they aren't warm enough, or don't fit well enough, or flatten when I get them home, or... (there always seems to be something wrong with the slippers I buy). But this time, I had an epiphany about my cold feet and that accidentally felted scarf I had in my closet from last year's laundry incident.  This was an accident waiting to be... slippers.

And they turned out to be warm and comfy. And funky (it turns out that when you make a pair of slippers from a crazy striped scarf, each one of them is different).

But they are warm. And they are a definite personalized fit, so they fit my feet perfectly.

I don't have much more to say about this particular project. I would definitely do this again. And if I didn't have an accidentally felted scarf to use, I would felt something on purpose - an old sweater  - or maybe I would have to knit some wool to felt in order to make some slippers. This is a 2 hour project at the very most. It is a basic sewing project. And it is a great way to turn something old and unusable into a new and totally fantastic way to keep my feet warm.

Yours too. So.... here is the challenge.... what would you reuse to make yourself a great pair of slippers?

I will post the pattern I used at the Daylilies site tomorrow, so you can take a peek at how I approached the project. I can say right now that it was easy, and it really started with me tracing my foot.

And - as long as I am talking about the Daylilies site, I was supposed to remind you today that I had posted the pattern for 'button fabric'  today, but we had some issues with the new website layout and shopping cart this morning, and I haven't had a chance to post this pattern yet. I will try and get to it tonight, but if I don't, both the button fabric and the slipper how-to's will be up tomorrow.

Will you take the challenge? Will you make your own very warm and comfy slippers?

Success! After 3 days of trying, I finally figured it all out. It is possible to make a very pretty 'fabric' from buttons. And it turned out to be really easy.

What you need:

Buttons. Lots of buttons. Any size will do but the buttons you use should all be about the same size. They do not need to match. I used old shirt buttons and they looked great, but were a little small to work with (I would use them again though).

Wire. I used 28 guage brass wire. I tried a 28 guage silver wire, but it was a little too tough to use, so I would suggest the brass wire.

Scissors to cut the wire. (You really don't need a special pair - the wire cuts easily enough - I would just make sure to use a pair that you don't mind getting dull.)

That's it. That is all you need.

The trick is in knowing how big a piece of 'fabric' you will need for what you want to do with it. For my candewrap, I measured the width of my pillar candle and needed to use a length of 20 buttons. I chose to make the width of my wrap the same as the height of my candle - and that was 6 rows deep. All in all, I needed 120 buttons.

Once you know how big to make the fabric, and how many buttons you need, you can get to work! And once you get the first row in, and have done the 'stitch' a couple of times, the rest of the project is just repitition. And easy. The rest of this (free) pattern will be posted on the patterns page of the Daylilies site tomorrow- so go and grab it  and give it a try (I will post the link again here on the blog tomorrow just in case you forget).

What will you use your fabric for?

Here is what my 'fabric' looks like (the backside is the pic on the bottom):

Okay. So the story goes something like this: I was right that I needed thinner wire to finish my button candleholder wrap project from last week (28 gauge wire, actually). I was even on the right track with sewing the buttons together in cross stitch style. And, after reading that how-to article posted for the button coasters on craftstylish.com, I thought I had this figured out. How wrong I was.

So - to regroup:

I started out to make a wrap for a glass tealight holder with some buttons that came across my studio work table. I soon realized that I needed thinner wire, and some further instructions, and the project was put on a hold for a day until I could get the wire and find the instructions for a similar project. This is where I thought I had figured out.

So I sat down today with everything ready to go, and things went surprisingly smooth for a while. I got a line of 21 buttons attached to each other. And I got them stable enough to attach another row of buttons to them.

Then, I did another row and another row and another row (5 rows in all). Each row got easier and faster. Things were going good.

But then it came time to attach my rows together. And this is where the problems started.

Even though I had the instructions as a reference in front of me, and I liked the way that project had turned out, I didn't like the way it was working out. Everything I originally liked about the translucent 'gem-like'  quality of the buttons was getting lost. (I even tried to add in some extra beads to bring back the whole jewellery appeal of this project, but no...it didn't work.

So where to go from here? Do I scrap this idea and move on to other things? I am not so convinced. You see, as I have been working through this project in my head, I have become more and more intrigued about where else this technique might lead. What if I made my own button type beads from clay and could make an actual candle holder? What if the beading of buttons can form some kind of button 'fabric'  for sculpture or journal covers? I just don't know if I can let this go until I have tried everything to make it work.

I really don't know how... yet. But for now, I did temporarily fasten the rows of buttons together around a pillar candle (I decided that it looked awful around a glass tea light holder) and it looks pretty good (nevermind the wire sticking out from behind... this is only a temporary try out thing). But maybe this particular project need only be as simple as that....?

I just don't know. I don't know why I decided to turn my buttons into a candleholder. I really don't know. But if you were reading this blog back when I used smocking in my journal making, you will know that sometimes, my creative mind just doesn't make a lot of sense (well - most of the time my creative mind doesn't make a lot of sense, but the journal turned out to be unexpectedly beautiful, and I think that the same will be said of the button candleholder).

But the truth is that I wasn't quite sure how to put it the buttons together to match the picture in my mind. Obviously, my first few attempts yesterday didn't work as well as I would have hoped.

Not to be deterred, I struck out today to find some directions. I didn't need inspiration... I have enough of that. I needed directions. I needed to know if anyone has ever done anything like what I have planned. And I needed to know how they approached it..

After reading a book on buttons (it wasn't very helpful, but I did learn that there are a lot of different kinds of buttons, and that they can be used to embellish very strange things), and doing a fairly extensive google search on buttons and wire and button crafting and any other word combination I could think of...

I found it.

Tucked away in a posting on craftstylish.com is a crafter that made a coaster out of buttons, and the look is much the same that I am hoping to achieve with the candleholder. And...there are instructions!

As it turns out, I wasn't too far from the right approach in the first place. I think that my problem was that I was sewing each button to its neighbour completely and then moving on to the next instead of sewing up the entire would-be length in the left hand side holes of the buttons and then back down on the right hand side length.  (As I write this, I realize that it is probably coming across clear as mud - but have no fear. I will post the whole project with pictures and the full instructions in easy to read english on Monday).

In the meantime, I also found some neat ideas for your spare buttons that you might want to peruse...

Martha Stewart embellishes a totebag...

thinkcraft.com shows you you how to make a really beautiful little pendant

And, the button wreath on the craftzine blog would make a really neat napkin ring for the holiday season

Have a really great weekend! Happy creating - I can't wait to see what you do with your buttons :)

Have you ever wondered what to do with those leftover, spare, and mismatched buttons that end up in the bottom of your junk drawer? You know - the extra ones that clothing makers give you just in case you loose a button from the shirt you just bought - the ones that you can't find when you need them, even though you have them?

So have I.

Alot lately - I came across a whole pile of them and was struck by how pretty a whole lot of plain shirt buttons can be. I have seen lots of neat things done with them (everything from the tasteful and beautiful to the bodacious and way overdone) and I thought that maybe I would try my hand at working with the pile of buttons that crossed my studio work table this week.

My first thought? A really neat candle holder cover (to go around a glass tealight holder).

My second thought? A really neat candle holder cover (to go around a glass tealight holder).

My third thought? You guessed it.

I really liked the idea of a button collage, and I was tempted to work on something like that, but Thanksgiving is coming up and I still really do like a pretty table. I also think that the transparent/reflective properties of these plain little shirt buttons will be beautiful when bathed in candlelight. I think that these little cast offs could become almost gem-like.

The big question is how to make it all happen.

So where is my starting point for this project?

I know that I want to use the buttons. I know that although they are all similar in size, they are really all different shapes. I know that all the buttons I want to use all have 4 holes.I know that I would prefer to keep this project symmetrical. I do not want the buttons to be all thrown together. And I know that I just want the button candleholder to be a sort of sleeve to slip over an existing glass tealight/votive holder.

My first attempt had the look and feel that I am looking for, but it didn't have the stability that the buttons would need to hold a vertical 'wrap' position. I used a transparent jewellery thread to sew the buttons together.

My second attempt wasn't much better. But to be honest, I knew that it probably wouldn't work. I had decided that if I used wire, but did the same type of sewing as I tried in my first attempt, that I would have the problem solved and a beautiful button candle holder in no time. But -I did not have any thin wire in my studio. So - even though I knew it probably wouldn't become what I wanted, I tried to use a heavier wire. And even though it didn't work (even though I used bigger 2-hole buttons for this trial the wire was too thick to get the buttons as close together as I wanted), I think that it worked enough to go out and find some thinner wire and try again for real.