On Sun, 26 Jun 2016 13:28:51 +0700, John B.
wrote:

Whatever is a "button-sewing kit"? I first envisioned something that
one came in a box and one bought in a store in order to sew buttons
with, and then thought of the little "sewing kits" that my wife
carries with her on trips - a few needles and some twists of thread in
various colors, in an envelope, for emergence repairs.

At the first Day of Helping, someone thought it would be a good plan
to offer lessons in sewing on buttons, and made up a lot of kits
consisting of a zipper sandwich bag containing everything needed to
practice sewing on a button. There's a spool of thread, a needle
stuck in a piece of felt, a round toothpick, and a button. I don't
recall seeing a piece of fabric to sew the button to, and I left the
three remaining kits in the church kitchen where I found them, so I
can't go look. It could be that I was told to bring scraps of fabric;
it was a long time ago.

Nobody was interested in learning how to sew on a button -- which
should have been expected, because anybody who wanted to learn would
look it up in a sewing encyclopedia or Google up a tutorial. So I got
into the backpack containing the tools for the lesson I'd developed
for Kreative Kids Kamp, which I'd stashed under the table just in
case, and spread out the tools for embroidery lessons. I think I
asked a child first, and dived under the table to bring stuff out a
little at a time. The children had a ball, and I've been doing
embroidery at the Day of Helping ever since. Which I appreciate,
because it's a long time since I've been invited to babysit at
Pinewood Derby and the like; I'm not sure we still *do* Pinewood
Derby.

Pinewood Derby was a miniature soapbox derby with hand-painted toy
cars coasting down an indoor ramp. The fun part was several days
spent making the cars, but each day a few children finished early, and
I would entertain them until their parents came.

The sign still says "button sewing", and I still pile the kits on the
corner of the table. This year all but three of them disappeared. One
of the children asked for one; I didn't see the rest go.

At one point in the afternoon, I held up a cloth-covered cardboard
circle and said "this is a button".

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/