Rhinestone Ball Buttons

About Our Rhinestone Ball Buttons

A small gold-tone ball, 10mm across, with the metal cut away in curls so you can see straight through to the hollow middle. The stones sit down inside a scalloped band that runs round the middle, rather than on top of the metal, which is why the surface still feels like metal and not like a trim that has been stuck on afterwards. One end carries a small loop for the thread; the other is finished with a matching gold bead, so the button reads the right way up whichever way you turn it.

Two versions, same body. Clear stones keep it quiet; they read as texture more than as sparkle, and the gold stays the loudest thing about the button. The mixed set, deep green and blue and red and amber, takes the identical ball somewhere closer to costume jewellery. Nothing else changes between the two.

10mm is smaller than the photos suggest

Ten millimetres is a shade under 3/8 inch, roughly a pencil eraser. Shot on a white background at that size everything looks bigger than it is, so lay a ruler on the desk before you order.

On a shirt placket it reads as a detail you notice on the second look. On a cuff or a mandarin collar it is about right. It will not hold the front of a coat closed, and it is not meant to; for that you want 20mm and up.

The hollow middle counts for something too. These weigh almost nothing for their width, so a row of them will not drag a lightweight blouse out of shape the way a solid ball of the same diameter would.

What people actually use them for

Cheongsam and qipao fronts. Mandarin collars. A run down the cuff of a fitted jacket, or across the back neck of a knitted top. Once you get past four or five in a vertical line they stop looking like fastenings and start looking like trim, which is usually the whole reason for buying them.

A fair number never go near a garment. Hair combs, bag charms, earring drops, doll clothes, beadwork of every kind. The loop takes a jump ring with no modification at all, and that is the reason the 25-pack exists.

Sewing them on

There are no holes on the face, so no thread ever crosses the stones. Take the needle through the loop four or five times, knot off behind the fabric, done.

The one thing worth slowing down for is where the loop sits. It is at one end of the ball rather than centred underneath, with the little bead directly opposite it, so the button hangs off its loop rather than standing to attention on the cloth. That slight tilt is part of the look. It does mean the ball turns freely, though, so decide which face you want showing and set the thickest run of stones outward before you knot off; putting one right afterwards means unpicking it.

On knitwear, add a small stay button on the reverse. A 10mm ball weighs next to nothing, but a single end loop funnels all of that pull into one point, and loose yarn will open up around it eventually.

Needle and thread are in every pack.

Six, ten or twenty-five

Six does one cheongsam front, or a pair of cuffs. Ten covers a full placket and leaves one over for the day you lose one. Twenty-five is for people making rather than mending: a jewellery run, a matched set across a whole garment, or just a tin to pull from.

What the metal and the stones will do

Gold-tone alloy, not solid gold. Glass stones, not gemstones. Worth saying plainly, because it explains everything underneath.

The stones are glued into their settings. Day to day that holds up fine. A hard knock against a doorframe, or a hot wash, can work one loose.

Run a fingernail along the cut edges and you will feel them. They will not catch on ordinary cloth, but do not drag them across silk or a fine knit.

The gold-tone finish wears at contact points. The loop tends to go first, since that is where thread rubs against it every time the garment moves.

Water gets inside a hollow ball and then stays there. Shake them out, leave them somewhere warm to dry, and only then put them away.

If you want a button that looks identical in ten years, buy a solid metal one with nothing set into it. These are decoration, and they behave like decoration.

Care

Hand wash the garment where you can, or unpick the buttons first if that is realistic. If it has to go through a machine, use a cool cycle, a mesh bag and no spin. No bleach, nothing abrasive. A dry soft cloth is all the metal needs.

Do not soak them. Water sitting inside the ball is what loosens the glue, and that is the complaint people write in about.

Do not iron over them, and keep them out of the tumble dryer.