If you lose the waist button from your jeans
and the nearest sewing shop is far away, what do you do?
A. Replace the jeans
B. Drive to the nearest sewing shop and buy a replacement
C. Cannibalize a button from your extensive scrapbag
D. Make a button
I'm curious about that because until recently there was a sewing shop about 4 miles away from me but apparently it didn't do enough business (it was part of a chain) and was closed. So now there are several quilting shops, but the nearest general fabric-and-notions place is 120 miles away near Boston.
The button that prompted this is made more like a large rivet, so when it pulled free of the waistband (the cloth seems woven of very weak, easily broken threads, but I like the jeans otherwise) there was no way to re-use it and no place nearby to buy a replacement.
So I got out my jeweller's saw, hand drill, and a piece of scrap 1/16 aluminum from the stock I'm using to make adapters for my touring racks (I guess this is bike-related after all :D) and made a new button just the way folk did 200 years ago. It works fine. So I got to wondering - am I the only one being frugal this way?