{Craft Time} Changing out Buttons on a Blazer

It seems like forever since I've done a craft time post. My only excuse is teaching last semester really kicked my butt. I ended up having about 60+ more students than I normally do, and that translated into oodles more grading, with very little free-time left over for frivolous activities.

Thankfully my class load is much more manageable this spring, so I've started in on some of the projects I've been meaning to get to. One of the things on my list was updating the buttons on a few of my older J Crew jackets and blazers. I love blazers for work, and have many. Most have been eBay purchases from years past. Most of the buttons on old-school J Crew jackets are far superior to what comes out these days, but I do have a few that are just ho-hum. Not bad or poor quality or anything, just kind of boring.

First up on my list was a J Crew blazer from Spring of 2005.

Very old-school. But it fit so well, and it's so well made I couldn't bear to part with it. It has lovely contrasting cotton lining, and the chino fabric is very heavy and just so well constructed. I hoped that just updating the buttons might breath some new life into it. So I thought that maybe some gold-tone nautical buttons might jazz things up--very much the way the nautical buttons on the Lexington blazer make it so special. In my eye at least, gold buttons or hardware always make things more expensive and chic looking.

So my hunt began. I figured I'd have more luck on-line than going to an ordinary fabric store, and I was right. I found the best resource for unusual buttons was Etsy. There I found a plethora of every type of button imaginable. Etsy can be somewhat of a crap-shoot though, and it took a lot of time and digging to find something acceptable. Most of the buttons I was eyeing were vintage, and had limited quantities, and that was the biggest obstacle. You would not believe the number of times I'd find the perfect buttons only to discover the seller only had a set of 7 available, when I needed 8. Or that I'd find large buttons that were perfect, and couldn't find sleeve buttons to match. Or vice-versa. Irritating.

After an entire morning of hunting, I finally came up acceptable quantities and combinations of both. Sadly, the sellers were from Europe, so it seemed like I had to wait forever for them to arrive.

But aren't they lovely?

With shipping included, I think I paid about $14 total for enough buttons to update 2 jackets. ( I have this same jacket in both apple green and camel as well, and I just can't decide which other color I want to switch out the button s on.) Not too bad, considering the are vintage, and metal (not the cheap plastic crap you'd find at the craft stores these days.) Of course the labor was free, so in all a relatively inexpensive fix.

So here is the before picture:

Nice, but kind of ho-hum, right?

And the after pictures:

Much nicer, yes?

The jacket's vibrant reddish/pink color was hard to capture accurately, but you get the idea.
I like the gold buttons much better than the boring horn ones. It gives it more pizazz.  I sewed all the buttons myself and it took about a couple hours to complete. It would have taken less time, but all those sleeve buttons tool forever. I'm assuming for those who don't have the desire, time, or skill to do so, I'm sure it doesn't cost too much at a tailor. I will say that sewing a button takes about zero skill though and is super cheap/easy in the way of supplies. A needle and thread cost about $2 at Wal-Mart. Plus, it is probably something that even the the least domestic of us can master-- even my talent-less husband can do this one ;P

All in all, I like the way it turned out. I have enough buttons for one more jacket, but I am having a hard time deciding which one I want to do. As I mentioned, I have this same jacket both in apple green and camel as well (all eBay purchases, btw), and I think they'd both look good with some updated gold buttons. Decisions, decisions........