The 1642 Tailor

Buttons

17th century buttons were not pierced with two or four holes like those generally used now. Instead they had a shank on the back of the button, and the single attachment hole passed through that.

The picture shows a typical 17th century pewter button on the portable antiquities site. Metal buttons were common, often made from lead, pewter tin or alloys of the same. These were usually cast, and the shank could be formed as one piece with the button, or could be in the form of a twist of copper alloy or iron wire set into the casting. Metal buttons could also be made from copper alloy, either cast as here, or in the case of flat buttons, punched from sheet with a loop soldered on the back.  Buttons could also be made from wood, bone etc, but these styles were also shanked not pierced. Upper class buttons could be in silver, gold, or precious stones.

Another style of button used a core, often of wood, covered in a wrapping of threads. The threads also formed an attachment shank. They could be fairly plain and simple, or use expensive silk or silver and gold thread. The plain example on the left is attached to a possibly 17th century coat in Colchester Museum, and is wrapped in linen thread. The right hand example from the Museum of London, a doublet from the Isham Collection. This is silk and metallic thread wrapped.

Cloth buttons were also common: formed from scraps of cloth, or a wooden core, wrapped in a piece of cloth, these also had a shank formed by binding and stitching. None have survived as far as I know, but here is a row of buttons on a reconstructed soldier’s coat.

Here’s a link to a nice piece about how to make your own thread wrapped and cloth buttons and another here

Two more original examples of thread wrapped buttons. The left hand button a detail from a boys doublet in Abingdon Museum. This button has been wrapped in a chevron pattern. The right hand picture is of an embroidered linen doublet in the Manchester Costume Collection in Platt Hall. The wrapping here starts with 5 or 6 guide threads around which the rest of the thread is anchored. Notice on both buttons that there is a centre knot. This is the top end of the anchoring threads that pass through the fabric of the doublet and form the shank holding the button up.

These buttons on a doublet in a museum in London have lost some of their top threads, showing how they were made, satin wrapped threads around the bead and embroidered over the top.

Have a look at this portrait of Nicholas Lanier. The knots on the top of his buttons can be seen clearly.

And here are some more examples of nice reproduction buttons.

Silk wrapped ones for a rather garish costume at Shakespeare’s Globe by Karl Robinson

Linen thread wrapped one by the 1642 Tailor

Reproduction pewter buttons on a soldier’s coat from Christophu

And last, but by no means least, some chevron wrapped ones by Gina Barrett

Just a few pics of a work in progress from a week or so ago.I may give away some of my secrets here, so don’t spread them around please!

The brief was a red montero with a pointed front skirt and gold braid. The braid comes from Morocco and is just gold wire braided into a cord, more 1640s than all the russia braid that you see in the haberdashery stores which was an 18th century adornment. Here’s a photo of the newly finished and decorated crown.

The next stage of making the hat is to sew together the crown, lining and peak together using the linen strip that will become the internal band of the hat. I have no idea whether 1640s caps had this internal band, but I’ve found it adds to the comfort of the hat and finishes the bottom edge off in a neat though still properly period manner. Here’s the seam half-way finished. It all looks a bit scruffy really, but all the internal workings disappear when the cap is finished.

One this seam is done, all the excess fabric is cut away, leaving as small a seam allowance as I dare. The next photo shows the crown and peak finished, just waiting for the skirt to be fixed on. From this stage, all that needs doing is the skirt to be sewn to the outside of the crown, maintaining a half inch or so between the bottom edge of the crown and the skirt and then whipping down the internal band to hide all the scruffy inside seams. Voila!

Introduction