I am so excited to announce the release of the Marble Button. It is made with 100% recycled plastic locally, without any virgin material or binding agents. Perfect for finishing off your memade cardigans, jackets and coats!
About the Button:
The shape of this button is inspired by the minimalist and elegant style lines of a marble tray - featuring a thin lip around the edge and 2 linear slots:
Each button is unique with its marble pattern. With 2 colourways to choose from - light and dark marble - this button is very versatile and would pair well with a variety of fabric colours and prints.
The size of this button is 22mm (about 0.86") in diameter - just slightly bigger than a bobbin. A great size for finishing off your cozy cardigans, jackets and coats. It will also work well as feature buttons for dresses, skirts, pants, dungarees and pinafore:
Patterns that would suit this button: (from top left clockwise: Valley Jumpsuit by Peppermint Magazine x Ready to Sew, Heather Blazer by Friday Pattern Co., Stacker Jacket by Papercut Pattern, Cleo Pinafore and Dungaree Dress by Tilly and the Buttons, Richmond Coat by Tessuti, Marlo Sweater by True Bias)
How it's Made:
To make this button, I collaborated with the wonderful team at Precious Plastic Melbourne (PPM) - from design, mould making to injection production.
Precious Plastic Melbourne is a social enterprise that empowers and assists businesses, community groups and schools to move from the resource-draining ‘take, make, waste’ linear system, to a progressive, circular economy.
Left: The team at PPM - Fergus, Blake, Piers and Kayla; Right: the injection mould for making the Marble Button (Photo credit: Precious Plastic Melbourne)
If you have not heard of the Precious Plastic movement - it is a bottom-up approach to recycle plastic, with open-source knowledge and technology available to anyone interested. I came across this amazing global community while researching ways to recycle offcuts produced from my own button-making process. With Arrow Mountain, I have always strived to reduce waste and make with recycled/recyclable materials wherever possible - be it product or packaging.
Traditionally, plastic bottle caps are not accepted in our comingle recycle bins, as they are made of a different plastic than that of their bottle/container counterpart. The team at PPM collects reclaimed bottle caps via Lids4Kids (search for your local branch on Facebook for drop-off locations). The caps are cleaned, sorted, shredded, injection moulded and finished off all by hand locally to make the Marble Button:
Left: Each Marble button is made of approximately half a bottle cap; Right: Recycling guide for bottle caps (Photo credit: Precious Plastic Melbourne)
My Sewing Plan:
Let's talk about the most exciting part - what I have planned to sew with this button. I already have a whopping 3 memade projects in my sewing queue that I want to make with this button!
Firstly, a jacket made with this luxurious Corduroy fabric in 'summer grass' I got from Fabric Deluxe. I am thinking of using the Ilford Jacket by Friday Pattern Co., and pair it with the light Marble Buttons:
Next, I'm thinking of an ensemble set of denim jacket and shorts, pairing them with the dark Marble Buttons:
Pattern: Stacker Jacket by Papercut Patterns, and the Wide Leg Pants by In The Folds x Peppermint Magazine
The Marble Button will add a luxurious and elgant touch, while the corduroy jacket and the denim ensemble set carry me through the fickle weather of Melbourne!
What do you think of the button? What pattern would you make it with?