Button Brigade Part 1

Way back when my dress was in a ton of unsewn little pieces, Sak made me a little promise to help motivate me to get started. Something to do with another project I was seriously considering.

Well, we finished the dress, Sak gave me the green light to make a big purchase, it came in the mail...and then he laid claim to it!
I thought it was my present, Sak?

There's just no separating the boy from a shiny new piece of heavy-duty machinery. Especially a cool one like a button maker. I bought it from here, along with 1000 button-pin sets! That should last us a while, I hope. The whole package weighed a whopping 11 pounds!

And apparently I don't get to play with it first. It's okay though, I can wait. Since he did most of the work on the dress anyway, I'll let him be in charge of button making. I'll still be doing the designing in any case. And while I work on coming up with designs, Sak would like to show you just how his fancy-pants-shiny-new-toy works.

First, he used a Fiskar's adjustable circle cutter we bought at Michael's to cut a 1.313" circle for the design. Since I haven't printed anything for him to use yet, he's taken to cannibalizing leftover washi paper.

Next, he stuck a button shell in the "pickup die" side of the machine.

And then placed the image (side-up) on top...

...followed by a piece of Mylar for a cover.

Clicking it into place under the die, he pressed the handle down all the way.

And like magic, the button top is gone! (It's really sucked up at the top of the machine)

For the other side, he placed a crimp in the "crimp die" barrel, and rotated it back under the die.

Pressing down again, and he's done!

But a button isn't complete without the pin, so he carefully snapped one into the back.

All done!


Now I've got to come up with some designs asap, or else Sak will use up all my washi paper! Any ideas? The sky is the limit!

Did you need to be bribed to finish something? Who else loves a good solid piece of machinery?