BUTTON COLLECTING AND CRAFTING

First used as fasteners in the 18th century when they were ""exclusively a man's fancy,"" buttons boomed in the 1800s but have only been formally collected since the 1930s. Newsome doesn't go into historical buttons and collections but concentrates instead on ways of sorting, storing, and displaying the modern ones you are likely to come across--or of using them to decorate apparel or make crafty, generally gimmicky gifts, Christmas ornaments, jewelry or games. Accessory.