Volunteer Spotlight:

Meet the curator extraordinaire of reclaimed buttons at The Nest Haberdashery’s Button Bar. Sarah is one of our dedicated volunteers who puts so much love and passion into what she does. She loves volunteering and meeting people and when she saw a gap in the textile recovery process, she said ‘I can do that!’.

Without a good display, buttons can easily go unnoticed so in our new Brendale store, the brief was that the Button Bar should be beautiful. Sarah loves being our button lady. She can use her creativity to highlight the beauty of each button and inspire how they enhance an outfit. 

Hand-sorted and repackaged buttons

When she volunteers Sarah spends 1-2 days a week sorting, cleaning, de-threading and packing buttons. It’s an ever-evolving process that includes making the cardboard tags from recycled cereal packets. Those little plastic ‘spare button’ bags attached to new clothes are also repurposed in line with The Nest’s sustainability ethos.

Sarah has fond memories of going through her mum’s and grandma’s button boxes and is very respectful of collections that are donated to The Nest. The variety is incredible – with buttons made of wood, shell, leather and one of Sarah’s favourite styles being 1930s style glass. Some of the important vintage buttons Sarah identifies goes to our Heritage Collection, but the rest are available to buy.

The joy of finding the right button

There are some ‘very dedicated’ button customers and she says ‘it brings me a lot of joy in finding a particular button or style that customers are looking for’. The Nest is a hive of creativity and Sarah loves that everyone wants to share what they plan to make with their Habby purchases. She recommends not to be shy if you need help choosing your buttons as there’s always a volunteer (or customer) on hand to help.

Sarah often wonders what the stories are behind button collections – who bought them? What were they bought for – a project that never got made? Or were they just part of the infamous crafter’s stash? So many questions, and so many buttons.

If only they could talk.

When you next visit our Button Bar, think of Sarah who spends many hours doing something ‘I really enjoy’ giving new life to donated buttons.

Learn more about The Nest Haberdashery