I like to make doll clothes with all the details to scale. Small buttons are difficult to find in some colors, so I make my own from recycled plastic containers such as margarine tubs and toothpaste tubes. I use a hole punch to cut out “chads,” which I then pierce with a strong needle to create a button. Craft stores carry punches in various sizes-a couple of sets of homemade punched “buttons” pays for the tool.

-Louise Hampton, Lithonia, Georgia, with Evelyn Blake, Roanoke, Virginia

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