Are you a hoarder or a thrower? There is always a balance between holding on to materials with memories of the past, and clearing the decks so new things can come into your life.

I have hoarder tendencies. After ‘rescuing’ a lot of natural fibres and found stuff from op shops during the past two years to add to my existing collection, I’m going through a shedding process during this Sew it Again year.

My friend Fiona Lake also has hoarder tendencies – and during the past few days while in her company many treasures have emerged, including her mother’s button stash. I enjoyed sorting the shell buttons into a smaller container to display very special treasure. Then Fiona produced this amazing little babies top, with shell buttons in situ where they would have been used to attach bloomers, which would have been from her grandmother’s era before zips and press studs. To bring some of the buttons into the sunshine, I sewed a gaggle of them to the bottom of one of Fiona’s denim skirts to become Sew 264, see photo at top. This is a mobile and easy upcycle, done while travelling to and from Giru and over lunch chat. More buttons can be added when energy and time allows!