Shell buttons are beautiful unique treasure from the sea and deserve to be used again and again. I have old hand-made trochus shell buttons from my mother-in-law’s collection and am still incubating an upcycling project worthy of them.

I’ve salvaged many shell buttons over the years and find the variety and natural beauty truly amazing.  They’re special because they won’t always be available in future. ABC Rural reported recently that a small trochus shell industry remains in Great Barrier Reef waters to cater for the high-end fashion market but the reality is that most buttons are now plastic. 

Today’s project Sew 336 uses more commonplace mother-of-pearl shell buttons in various sizes.  Because of the time involved in hand-sewing, I chose a plain-styled quality linen dress (found in op-shop somewhere, recently rediscovered in my ‘White’ box). I began stitching off-centre in the front and randomly spaced buttons of different sizes, ensuring each is secured separately. I restyled the dress to suit myself, creating a waistband tuck to shorten (and therefore widen) the bottom portion of dress. To create a raw edge, I used pinking shears to trim the sleeves and cut off the hemline before securing with a couple of runs of zigzag stitch slightly away from the edge. I actually wanted to have the buttons going right out over the sleeves and deeper into the bodice – but that’s for another day. I ran out of time before attending the Rural Press Club Christmas drinks at the ABC Brisbane Studios at Southbank last Wednesday night, when the photo above was taken.