Hello,
I have just come across this thread, so I hope you don't mind me butting in.
Until I could no longer see well enough I used to run a one woman business making all sorts of hand (not machine) embroidered things, boxes, pictures, bookmarks, beadwork, gold and silver work, all sorts, and sold them at craft fairs.
To attract people to my stall, one of the things I also used to do was to make Dorset buttons and show children how to make them into badges. Basically, all the stitches used are embroidery stitches but executed in the round rather than just flat.
It was originally a cottage industry in much the same way as the bobbin lace makers and stitched lace makers were in Buckinghamshire, Notts, and Devon. Most lower class women and children of villages were employed and the fruits of their labour were collected by agents who sold it in the quality shops of towns and cities. The agents also provided the raw materials at a cost.
The stuffing for the knobs and hightops was usually hard packed raw scraps of washed wool in much the same way as raised stumpwork is created. An old Dorset button though is created just with packed rounds of tiny embroidery stitches.
The thread used was not cotton (that came much later) but tightly spun, double twisted, worsted wool or linen or a mixture of both. Really high quality buttons were made with spun silk.
Spinning flax to make linen thread I could never really get on with, but spinning wool, silk, and hair was part of what I did, my spinning wheel fascinating those who stopped to watch.
Vicwinann
