"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery" — Mark Van Doren

"Yorkshire Buttons are basically an extension of an embroidery stitch called a ribbed wheel. (Also known as ribbed spider’s web, back stitched spider’s web, woven wheel or woven spot). Somewhere in Yorkshire, someone had the bright idea of taking this stitch and weaving it free of any backing material. Instead the stitch is woven onto a circular template, thus they were able to take the finished circle off the template and gather and stuff it to form a little sphere and hey presto a new button was invented." -=- from How to make a Yorkshire Button from Potter Wright & Webb, A Traditional Crafts Journey around the British Isles

History of Dorset Buttons

• The History of the Dorset Button Industry by Henry's Buttons. Like a number of heritage crafts and skills, information was passed down from generation to generation. The Dorset Button industry was no exception. However, we do know that this cottage industry affected the lives of hundreds of families in Dorset for more than 200 years."


• Jack Hargreaves - Dorset Buttons An episode from Jack Hargreaves TV series in the 1980s. In this half episode of one of Jack Hargreaves' 'Out of Town' series first broadcast in the 1970s he shows Elizabeth Gilbert making buttons by hand in Twyford, a village a few miles south of Shaftesbury in Dorset. He talks of the days when button-making was a cottage industry - the traditional form of manufacture before the Industrial Revolution replaced the rural family uout-worker with factory based machines as part of the expansion of the Britain's industrial cities. The film shows casting, laying, rounding techniques and explains such button types as the high top, knob, crosswheel and Blandford cartwheel as well as the impact of mass production on traditional country households in the once thriving village.

How To Make Dorset and Yorkshire Buttons

• Yorkshire Buttons by Mary Hickmott Designs


• How to make a Yorkshire Button from Potter Wright & Webb, A Traditional Crafts Journey around the British Isles


• Yorkshire Buttons - instructions included! Halifax Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild, April Meeting 2015


• Button Making Tutorials A series of button making tutorials by Gina Barrett of Gina-B Silkworks showing how to make both modern and historical thread and fabric buttons. These handmade buttons can be used for clothing and costume, for jewellery such as button earrings, or just to make wonderful button art.


• How to make Dorset Buttons by Henry's Buttons.

Sonya's Button Webpage

• Sonya's Fun and Easy Buttons & Tassels