laura squealed when she saw it

That afternoon, when Carrie was asleep, Ma beckoned Mary and Laura. Her face was shining with a secret. They put their heads close to hers, and she told them. They could make a button string for Carrie's Christmas! -On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 13, "Merry Christmas"

I do not have a dog's head button, but I have buttons with dogs painted on them, a mouse-shaped button, pink china rose buttons, and a castle button.

I also have buttons from my mother and grandmother, and I have some that I am particularly fond of, such as brass buttons from my father's and husband's Navy uniforms, a button from my favorite dress when I was four (the two holes are at the top of the button, which struck my fancy even back then), and a Civil War era Goodyear rubber button. I also have a button with one hole, lots of cottonwood buttons, some elk antler buttons, and a big blue mason jar full of buttons that sits by my desk.

My grandmother kept her buttons in a drawer of her treadle sewing machine. I inherited both the buttons and the machine. My mother kept her buttons in a big round metal Scotch tape can. In On the Banks of Plum Creek, Ma brings out her "button-box," but in The Long Winter, the buttons are kept in a "button bag."

Sadly, I can't trace my love affair with buttons to "Little House." I like buttons because of Jean Fritz's 121 Pudding Street, and yet there is a "Little House" connection; there is always a LH connection! Fritz won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1986.

Button garland is easy to make; just get a needle and thread (dental floss or fishing line is stronger) and start stringing! In the photo above, I like the top garland better, because it doesn't use as many buttons and you can see the faces of them. It's tailor-made for 4-hole buttons.

Buttons are mentioned a lot in the "Little House" books, both specific buttons, and by type in passing, such as shirt buttons or overcoat buttons. Laura sees "cards of buttons of all types" in Clancy's store (Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 5, "Working in Town").

Buttons to be on the lookout for include the following: shaped like blackberries, covered in brown silk, brass, cut-steel, dog-head, gilt, gold-colored with castle and trees, shoe buttons, horn, jet, pearl, round and green, round and black, and wooden.
- posted by pioneergirl at 8:56 PM